Week 9

Business Leaders Urge Deficit Deal Even With More Taxes
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/us/politics/business-leaders-urge-deficit-deal-even-with-more-taxes.html?ref=politics&_r=0
Article from The New York Times


The partisan rift over taxes has blocked a deficit reduction deal for two years and has spilled into the 2012 campaigns. Yet as Republicans and Democrats continue to dispute, business leaders are increasing pressure on Washington to reach a deal, even if it calls for more revenue, including higher tax bills for themselves.
On Thursday morning, more than 80 executives of leading American corporations signed a statement calling for a deficit reduction compromise that would "include comprehensive and pro-growth tax reform, which broadens the base, lowers rates, raises revenues and reduces the deficit."


The business leaders’ goal contrasts with the campaign messages of both parties. While the executives seem to answer Mr. Obama’s call for “economic patriotism” by their tentative embrace of higher personal taxes, in interviews many of them have rejected his “pay your fair share” talk as class warfare, and a good number oppose his re-election.

But the business leaders’ position also contradicts the stand of Mitt Romney and other Republicans, who say that all tax increases are “job killers,” that the federal budget can be balanced with spending cuts alone and that any overhaul of the tax code should be “revenue neutral,” neither raising nor lowering the government’s total tax collection.

Week 8

2012 vice presidential debate could be key in campaign momentum

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20121010/NEWS01/310100143/2012-vice-presidential-debate-could-key-campaign-momentum
Article from courier-journal

Summary:

Vice presidential debate at Centre College between Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan could be crucial in determining momentum in the last weeks before the election. Republicans seized momentum in last week’s presidential debate when Mitt Romney prevailed against a flat President Barack Obama.

In the days since the Obama-Romney debate, the Republican challenger has gained ground in national polls and all-important swing-state polls, where the Nov. 6 election will be won or lost. Democrats believe Biden, 69, will go on the offensive more than Obama did last week and more than the vice president did in 2008. Democrats and Republicans both say Biden, a skilled debater, has no reason not to go after the 42-year-old Ryan, who hasn’t had a campaign debate in 14 years. Ryan’s challenge is to prove that he can debate, especially on foreign affairs issues that he had to familiarize himself with after being chosen as Romney’s running mate this summer.

Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is most comfortable dealing with federal budget issues and has studied two large binders full of facts while on the campaign trail in an effort to broaden his knowledge.

Week 7

Romney wasn't stellar, but Obama fell short

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/04/opinion/schroeder-presidential-debate/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Article from CNN

Incumbent presidents often take it on the chin when they return to the debate stage after a four-year absence. Wednesday night in Denver added another such instance to the history books. It's not that Mitt Romney was particularly stellar, but rather that President Obama fell short. In an untested format for presidential debates, with two-minute opening statements followed by open-ended discussion, the candidates found themselves having to move fast and think on their feet. On this point, Romney came across as the more nimble performer. He seemed alert to his surroundings in a way that Obama was not.

Romney energizes campaign with feisty debate performance

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/04/romney-energizes-campaign-with-feisty-debate-performance/

Article from Foxnews

Mitt Romney energized his campaign for president Wednesday night, charging out of his first debate having, by most accounts from both sides of the political spectrum, dominated President Obama in a standoff for which he was evidently well-prepared.