Posts Subscribe to Revolution ChurchComments

Sabtu, 6 Oktober 2012

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

0 ulasan 9:43 PG Dicatat oleh blog2
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

Obama's September Campaign Take: $181 Million - Wall Street Journal

Posted: 06 Oct 2012 09:13 AM PDT

BY PETER NICHOLAS

The Obama campaign collected $181 million in September, significantly topping its prior fundraising record for the 2012 election, as donors energized by the Democratic convention rallied to the president's cause.

The total, which includes money raised jointly with Democratic Party affiliates, far surpasses anything Mr. Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney have raised in any prior month of ...

Romney, Ryan throw facts under the bus on Biden taxes 'gaffe' - NBCNews.com

Posted: 06 Oct 2012 09:34 AM PDT

>>> according to mitt romney , his running mate, paul ryan , is the intellectual leader of the republican party . ryan is also chairman of the house budget committee which make it is all the more bewildering that when he's invited to explain his budget, the one that mitt romney has endorsed, well, mr. ryan appears to lose his voice. however, vice president joe biden isn't afraid to tell a hard truth.

>> obama and biden want to raise tacks by $8 trillion. guess what? yes, we do in one regard. we want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn't have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super wealthy.

>> karen finney is an msnbc political analyst and former dnc communications director and hogan giddily is the former communications director for the rick santorum campaign. welcome to both of you. kar karen , to quote jack nicholson in "a few good men" romney and ryan , they just can't handle the truth can they?

>> they can't. the level of intellectual dishonesty , i use the wort intellectual half joking, they took the vice president's comments and truncated them without the most important part, which has been the most important part of what the president has been talking about, what democrats have been talking about, and that is the idea that those at the top should be doing their fair share , and that's something that i guess all of the sudden now romney and ryan , they don't quite say it that way, but they're sort of saying, well, we're not going to mess with their tacks but we're going to, you know, help the middle class and we're going to, you know, fire big bird to get it all done.

>> yeah, that's right. hogan , biden tells the truth, and ryan calls him out for, quote, dropping the veil and using candor. i mean, it's as if truth has become a four-letter word for the romney campaign.

>> well, i wouldn't say that, but, look, i think there was a problem with the romney / ryan pick right off the bat, and that was ryan had a plan that was obviously well-publicized, that was defeated, but since mitt romney was short on specifics in his plan, the media immediately filled in the holes and the gaps in romney 's plan with ryan 's old plan.

>> but hogan , i thought --

>> they couldn't answer the question.

>> hogan , just before you answer fully though, my understanding was that mitt romney had embraced ball ryan 's budget. indeed, i heard him say that. so i think it's slightly inaccurate to suggest that somehow mitt romney has been separate from paul ryan . he's embraced paul ryan 's budget.

>> well, if i'm not mistaken, that, too, was in a primary that in a sense they were asking would you embrace his plan and romney said, yeah, it's a good plan, but as the nominee obviously, you have your own plan. the raub is that plan was a little bit short on specifics, shall we say, and so they filled the gaps smartly so done by the democrats by the way, they filled the gaps with ryan 's plan to try to make romney 's plan appear to be out of touch with the mainstream.

>> hogan , hold on though because that's not altogether true because part of the problem that the romney / ryan / ryan / romney however you want to say it, they were asked a very simple obvious question. okay, governor romney , how would your plan differ? crickets. there was no answer. i mean, it was the most obvious question. having endorsed ryan 's plan in the primary, you then bring him on the ticket. it's not an unfair question to say to governor romney and to congressman ryan , okay, so you're saying you're going to have your own plan. okay. how is it going to differ? give us some specifics.

>> karen , good luck with waiting for an answer to that. but i'd like you to answer this. the vice presidential debate this coming thursday, the bar has been set pretty high for paul ryan . he's the numbers guy and the intellectual leader of the party, so i'm assuming, karen , that he will just destroy joe biden .

>> yeah, good luck with that one, paul ryan . i sure hope he's going to go in there and think he can do that. i love joe biden and this is the guy to take paul ryan down on a number of levels. he's going to have to defend himself and there's going to be plenty of time if he wants to walk through any kind of numbers. i'm sure we can get out a whiteboard and pen and write it down. i'm sure biden will give him all the time he needs to walk through the numbers. there's still a huge liable for the romney / ryan ticket, and that is this issue of medicare and what they would do in these tax breaks , and i really believe that joe biden is going to be able to hold paul ryan 's feet to the fire in a way that we have not yet seen.

>> okay, hogan , so karen says that joe biden is going to in about the second round. what's your assessment of the fourthcoming debate, hogan ?

>> i'm not sure if it will be the second round but joe biden will definitely throw a whole lot more punches than barack obama did. i'm pretty confident that joe biden will be the attack dog in this. i think he's going to try to pin ryan down on a lot of specifics. ryan had a little bit of trouble answering those specifics in various interviews up until this point. i don't think that's shocking to anybody on this network for sure, but he's going to have --

>> oh!

>> he's going to have a chance to look sharp , to look strong, and to answer the vice president and to outline the plan that mitt romney or undergird the plan that mitt romney talked about. the problem is i don't think he's going to be able to levy things and go unchallenged. biden is going to hold his feet to the fire, no question.

>> now, let me show you what happens when paul ryan runs out on a sean hannity interview early. take a listen, both of you.

>> thank you for being with us, governor romney stays with us.

>> thanks. we've got 12,000 people out here excited to see us.

>> 12,000 people, we only have 4 million people that want to see you so we're competing.

>> did the numbers guy really trade 4 million people and 12,000 and inassault sean hannity at the same time.

>> that was a little insulting but sean hannity probably shouldn't have said that. that was slightly arrogant for him to say, too. fox news, no questions, the jumping off point for a lot of campaigns. i remember on the santorum campaign we had to stop an event with 20,000 people there to do a greta interview late at night because we knew the voyeurshu viewership would be more on" that venue. i don't know why he wanted to do that. i'm sure there were people who wanted to pat him on the back. but that's no big deal . he made the choice and he has to live with it.

>> hogan , karen , thank you both and have great weekends.
Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Jumaat, 5 Oktober 2012

NST Online Business Times : latest

0 ulasan 7:35 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Business Times : latest

US stocks pare early gains to end mixed

Posted: 05 Oct 2012 04:36 PM PDT

NEW YORK: US stocks closed mixed in late trade Friday, giving up early gains on the back of strong September data on unemployment and later figures showing a pick-up in consumer credit-based spending.

Early on, the Dow and the S&P indices hit five-year highs before giving up gains in the last hour of trade.

At the closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 34.79 points (0.26 percent) at 13,610.15.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.47 points (0.03 percent) at 1,460.93, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 13.27 points (0.42 percent) to 3,136.19.

The Labour Department data for September put the official jobless rate at 7.8 percent, down from the previous 8.1 percent and the lowest level since January 2009, the month that President Barack Obama took office.

The data from its establishment survey was less buoyant, showing a modest 114,000 net new jobs produced, but previous months were revised higher, underpinning the better showing in the September data.

"While the media may be concentrating on the fact that payroll levels deteriorated in September, the underlying trends in the data were extremely positive," said Briefing.com.

Stocks pushed 0.8 percent higher in early trade before giving up their gains in the afternoon.

"We erased the bulk of the day's rise at the end of the session because there was no longer anyone in the market, as often happens these days on Friday afternoon," said Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert France.

Bank of America led NYSE trade with a 1.0 percent loss, while on the Nasdaq Apple shares fell 2.1 percent.

Shares of game maker Zynga sank 11.9 percent after it reduced forecasts for the year on lower demand.

Sprint Nextel jumped 2.2 percent on reports it might respond to T-Mobile's move to take over Metro PCS with a counter-bid. MetroPCS lost 0.3 percent.

Chipotle Mexican Grill continued to sink in the wake of hedge fund manager David Einhorn's recommendation Tuesday to short the stock, saying it was vulnerable to agile competition.

Chipotle shares lost 4.5 percent, taking the week's loss to 11.5 percent. -- AFP

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

0 ulasan 9:47 PG Dicatat oleh blog2
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.8% - Wall Street Journal

Posted: 05 Oct 2012 08:43 AM PDT

By JOSH MITCHELL And SARA MURRAY

The nation's unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since January 2009, suggesting job growth picked up over the summer and shifting questions in the presidential race about which candidate can best fix the nation's ailing economy.

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September, the lowest level in more than 31/2 years. Payrolls increased by 114,000 with private companies adding 104,000 jobs. Sudeep Reddy and Phil Izzo join The News Hub to review the data. Photo: Getty Images.

The unemployment rate slid to 7.8% in September, falling below 8% for the first time since President Barack Obama's inauguration, the Labor Department said Friday. Employers added a seasonally adjusted 114,000 jobs last month, a tepid pace that was countered by the fact that figures for previous months were boosted above initial estimates. Those figures reflected that the nation added 181,000 jobs in July and 142,000 jobs in August, showing that job growth in the third quarter was far higher than in the spring.

The unemployment rate and the number of jobs are obtained from separate surveys and don't always align to convey the same picture of the labor market. That was the case this month. Overall, the report suggested the labor market—while stronger than it was during the spring—remains sluggish. The big drop in the jobless rate was in part due to workers settling for part-time jobs because they couldn't find full-time work.

Some economists said the decline in the jobless rate likely occurred over a longer period than the report indicates, because the way the government calculates job growth and the jobless rate can be flawed and lead to artificial jumps that are later revised.

"I take these numbers with an enormous grain of salt," said economist Joshua Shapiro of consultancy MFR Inc. in New York. "I think the underlying trend is pretty clear in terms of the labor market—that it's still struggling quite mightily."

The report is one of the final major gauges of the economy before voters head to the polls Nov. 6 to choose the next president. The jobless rate is now back to where it was when Mr. Obama took office, potentially strengthening the president's argument that the economy is on the right path and gradually healing from a deep recession. However, just one president, George W. Bush, in recent decades has won re-election when the unemployment rate was unchanged or higher than when he took office.

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said the economy is greatly underperforming and that the president's policies have impeded faster growth.

Friday's report is the first since the Federal Reserve's decision to commence an ambitious stimulus program—buying $40 billion a month of mortgage-backed securities until the U.S. job market substantially improves. The latest numbers offer some good news with the falling unemployment rate but also suggests that job creation, while steady, remains slower than the Fed would like.

Messrs. Obama and Romney have sparred over whose economic policies would lay the best foundation for job creation.

At Wednesday's debate, Mr. Romney criticized the president for presiding over a period of high unemployment and stagnant wages that he said has squeezed middle-class families.

"If I'm president I will create—help create—12 million new jobs in this country with rising incomes," Mr. Romney said.

Mr. Obama highlighted steady growth: The private sector has added nearly five million jobs since February 2010. And he called for a "new economic patriotism" that embraces spending on education, training, energy and other areas to speed the recovery.

Jeremy Zirin, Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for UBS Wealth Management, reviews the September employment data and looks at what the data mean for the economy. Photo: Getty Images.

Private companies accounted for most of the growth in September payrolls, adding 104,000 jobs.

In the private sector, employment increased in health care as well as transportation and warehousing. Manufacturing employment fell by 16,000.

Governments, meanwhile, added 10,000 positions as the federal and state-level workforces grew.

So far this year, overall job growth has averaged 143,000 a month, compared with 153,000 in 2011.

Average earnings rose by seven cents to $23.58 an hour, while the average workweek edged up by 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours in September.

A broader measure of unemployment—which includes job seekers as well as those in part-time jobs--held steady at 14.7% in September.

—Jeffrey Sparshott and Eric Morath contributed to this article.

Fact Check: Obama says Romney opposed ending tax break – only he didn't - Fox News

Posted: 05 Oct 2012 09:28 AM PDT

A day after the Obama campaign countered Mitt Romney's strong debate performance by accusing him of playing fast and loose with the facts, President Obama threw out a doozy of his own. 

At a rally Friday in Fairfax, Va., Obama claimed Romney had outright rejected his proposal to end tax breaks for oil and gas companies. 

"He said there's no way that he'd close the loophole that gives big oil companies billions each year in corporate warfare," Obama said, in the middle of a litany of complaints on Romney's tax positions from Wednesday's debate. 

Just one problem. Romney didn't say that. 

Rather, the Republican nominee said that if tax rates are lowered as his plan calls for, the $2.8 billion in breaks for oil companies should be on the table. 

Here's what Romney said: 

"But, you know, if we get that tax rate from 35 percent down to 25 percent, why that $2.8 billion is on the table. Of course it's on the table. That's probably not going to survive (if) you get that rate down to 25 percent." 

The president, though, has been trying to recover from Wednesday's debate by casting the Republican nominee as an ideological shape-shifter. He claimed Thursday that the Romney who showed up to debate him is not the same Romney who's been showing up on the campaign trail. 

Campaign adviser David Axelrod called Romney a "serial evader" and an "artful dodger" in a conference call Thursday. 

"What we learned is that he'll say anything that makes him effective in the short term but vulnerable in the long term," Axelrod said. 

However, Romney told Fox News in an interview Thursday that the president just "wasn't happy with the response to our debate." 

He reiterated he wants to bring tax rates down while reducing deductions. "What the president's been saying and the reality are pretty far apart," Romney said.
Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Khamis, 4 Oktober 2012

NST Online Business Times : latest

0 ulasan 7:19 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Business Times : latest

SapuraKencana buys 38pc of Quippo Prakash

Posted: 04 Oct 2012 06:59 PM PDT

NEW DELHI: Oil and gas firm, SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd, has acquired 38 per cent stake in derrick lay barge, Quippo Prakash from Indian company, Quippo Oil and Gas Infrastructure Ltd (QOGIL), for US$122 million (RM373 million).

QOGIL is a unit of Kolkata-based Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd.

"The vessel was sold at an enterprise value of US$122 million. Srei had a 38 per cent stake in Quippo Prakash through QOGIL," said Srei in a statement.

Having invested when the market has bottomed out, QOGIL took advantage of the present buoyant conditions to exit its investment, Srei's Vice-Chairman Sunil Kanoria said.

He said Srei has been creating a portfolio of strategic investments over the past years and as and when there is an opportunity of encashing with a good return, it does so.

QOGIL, primarily in the business of owning and operating onshore drilling rigs, also held a substantial equity stake in the Quippo Prakash, it said.

The investment in the barge was made in 2008 at a time when the downturn in the offshore markets allowed QOGIL to negotiate favourable terms from shipyards.

Outfitted in Singapore and commissioned in 2010, the state-of-art offshore construction support barge, upon delivery was placed on term charter with a major offshore contractor in South East Asia, generating positive returns and cashflows immediately.

Equipped with a 2000MT crane, the barge was designed to provide offshore construction support and underwater pipe-lay capability.

"With increasing levels of activity in the subsea construction market, the vessel had generated considerable interest amongst major offshore contractors," added Srei.-- BERNAMA

Genting HK applies to up stake in Echo

Posted: 04 Oct 2012 06:42 PM PDT

Genting Hong Kong Ltd, the cruise ship company controlled by Lim Kok Thay, has applied to lift its stake in Echo Entertainment Group Ltd to 25 percent amid a fight with billionaire James Packer over Sydney's only casino.

Genting Hong Kong, with a 4.2 percent stake in Echo, has applied to the New South Wales Liquor and Gaming Authority to increase its share and the regulator is investigating the plan along with its counterpart in neighboring Queensland state, the agency said in a statement on its website.

Crown Ltd, the casino company controlled by James Packer, has also applied to increase its stake in the Sydney-based company to 25 percent. Crown has a 7.7 percent stake in the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. -- Bloomberg
Kredit: www.nst.com.my

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

0 ulasan 9:53 PG Dicatat oleh blog2
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

Presidential debate sets record on Twitter - USA TODAY

Posted: 04 Oct 2012 08:38 AM PDT

{ "assetid": "1612689", "aws": "news/politics/features_onpolitics", "aws_id": "news_politics_features_onpolitics", "blogname": "On Politics", "contenttype": "blogs ", "pagename": "Presidential debate sets record on Twitter", "seotitle": "Obama-romney-twitter-debate-denver", "seotitletag": "Presidential debate sets record on Twitter", "ssts": "news/politics/onpolitics", "taxonomykeywords":"Online media,Presidential elections,Jim Lehrer,News media,Election 2012,Political conventions,Barack Obama,Denver,Mitt Romney", "templatename": "stories/default", "topic":"online-mediapresidential-electionsjim-lehrernews-mediaelection-2012political-conventionsbarack-obamadenvermitt-romney", "videoincluded":"yes", "basePageType":"story" }

Turkey-Syria border tension - live updates - The Guardian

Posted: 04 Oct 2012 09:11 AM PDT

In Aleppo, displaced people are everywhere – many of them blaming the FSA for their plight. There is little paid work, savings are drying up and even a lawyer can find himself reduced to selling loaves of bread on the street.

Our colleague Mona Mahmood has been talking via Skype to Salema Mustafa, a teacher who lives in the government-controlled Nile Street area of the city.

People who live in liberated areas of Aleppo can no longer can work there owing to the bombardment by the Syrian army. Many started coming to the unliberated areas to work because they are safer, like our district. [Street] vendors are everywhere here.

People in the liberated areas who are living in schools as refugees have no work except as vendors in the street.

I used to be a teacher but no longer – the schools are occupied by refugees. We are running courses in psychological support for the refugees. I'm trying to help these people to learn some skills to help them deal with the current crisis.

These refugees are upset with the FSA. They believe they would not be subjected to shelling or have leave their homes if the FSA had not liberated their areas. I'm trying to help them to be positive and think of the real cause of the problem – but indirectly.

In the beginning there was widespread resentment towards the FSA, but now they have begun to change their opinion – especially since the Syrian army started to target bakeries and mosques.

People of Aleppo who in the liberated areas were not prepared for the revolution and are mostly uneducated – they are unaware of their rights. They think only of how to earn their living, not how to change the president.

We are launching literacy courses for the refugees and help them to understand the political situation. We offer the refugees food, beds, blankets and clothes. Medical help also is offered – they have many cases of jaundice.

We have 150 schools filled with refugees, each one has no less than 500 refugees and our help is reaching more than 30 schools in Aleppo. We started only three weeks ago.

We have great problems with the refugees living in the university city – small rooms packed with people. As far as I know only three governmental schools are open in addition to few private ones. We are not sending our kids to schools and teachers do not dare [to risk] all these checkpoints to get to the schools.

People are living out of their savings but they are now reaching the end. My friend is a lawyer, he has no work at all. Now he is queueing at bakeries and collecting bread to sell to people in the streets.

Transport fares are three times more than before. If you are not suspected and your name is not with the Syrian army, you can get out of the city. But also we have the problem of gangs who will stop you, claim they are FSA and steal all your belongings. Travelling is a great risk.

The FSA is also short of food and resources, so they take what they get here. People are upset about these practices, but in the end we need to get rid of the regime. A brigade from Azaz is kidnapping businessmen from Aleppo to take money for their release.

My relatives and friends in Salaheddine district told me that they have seen Arab fighters there. They are good fighters but they are hardline Muslims. If they see someone smoking they point their gun at him. If they detain a man, they ask him: "How many pages of the Holy Quran did you memorise?" I do not know if they are all like this or not.
Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Rabu, 3 Oktober 2012

NST Online Business Times : latest

0 ulasan 7:12 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Business Times : latest

US stocks gain, HP shares plunge

Posted: 03 Oct 2012 04:44 PM PDT

NEW YORK: Hewlett Packard shares plunged Wednesday on concerns about the company's turnaround strategy but the markets overall closed higher, helped by firm reports on services sector growth and private hiring.

Investors dumped HP, the shares closing down 13.0 per cent at US$14.90, after chief executive Meg Whitman said it would take time to turn around the company that built its fortune on printers and personal computers.

That performance weighed down the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, which finished up 12.25 points (0.09 per cent) at 13,494.61.

The broad-based S&P 500 was stronger, gaining 5.24 points (0.36 per cent) at 1,450.99, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 15.19 (0.49 per cent) to 3,135.23

Market gains were underpinned by two positive data releases. The Institute for Supply Management's services industry PMI showed the crucial sector picking up pace, though hiring remained flat.

Payrolls company ADP's private sector hiring report was better than expected, though at 162,000 jobs in September was still down by 14 per cent from August.

"September is shaping up to be a better month than we were expecting judging by the two ISM reports (especially the improvement in orders) and the vehicle sales data," said analysts at RDQ Economics.

"That said, the non-manufacturing ISM report did not support other labour market indicators that were suggesting a possible upside surprise as the employment index pointed to slower job growth in September."

Trade was heavy in Wellpoint, which lost 0.6 per cent after Fitch downgraded the health benefits manager due to questions raised by its purchase of insurer Amerigroup.

Discount retail chain Family Dollar jumped 3.9 per cent after reporting a 1.4 per cent increase in fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and forecasting steady growth in fiscal 2013.

Second-tier wireless carrier MetroPCS confirmed its cash-and-stock merger with rival T-Mobile, creating a customer base of 42 million subscribers aimed at securing their footing in in a market dominated by AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel.

PCS shares fell 9.8 per cent, after having jumped 17.8 per cent on Tuesday in anticipation of the deal.

AT&T and Verizon both gained 1.0 per cent, while Sprint Nextel picked up 6.1 per cent. -- AFP

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

0 ulasan 9:31 PG Dicatat oleh blog2
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

NST Online Top Stories - Google News

Reuters/Ipsos polls show scope of challenge facing Romney - Reuters

Posted: 03 Oct 2012 09:06 AM PDT

U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets audience members at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado October 1, 2012 ahead of his first debate with U.S. President Barack Obama. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets audience members at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado October 1, 2012 ahead of his first debate with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By John Whitesides

DENVER | Wed Oct 3, 2012 12:05pm EDT

(Reuters) - Heading into his first debate with Democratic President Barack Obama on Wednesday, Republican Mitt Romney has some convincing to do.

During the next five weeks - and three debates - Romney will make an appeal to voters aimed at overcoming an Obama campaign that has outflanked his own for much of the past four months. Romney enters the final sprint to the November 6 election behind in national polls and trailing in most of the nine or so politically divided "swing" states that are likely to decide the election.

Just as important, Romney trails Obama among likely voters on a broad array of issues and personal ratings that reflect the scope of the challenge Romney faces in trying to come from behind and snatch the presidency from the Democratic incumbent.

A series of Reuters/Ipsos tracking polls indicate that Obama has small leads over Romney on separate questions about which candidate would best handle the economy and who could create more jobs, even though Romney has made his business experience as the head of a private equity firm the centerpiece of his campaign.

Obama has double-digit leads on who would do better on taxes, 45 percent to 35 percent, and on dealing with the Social Security retirement program, 43 percent to 31 percent.

Likely voters are particularly supportive of Obama on more personal issues. Romney, who has been portrayed by Obama's campaign as an out-of-touch millionaire, trails Obama by about 30 points among likely voters who were asked which candidate was more likable. Romney trails by 20 points on the question of which candidate best understood voters.

Such questions touching on Romney's likability and empathy might pale in importance to questions about the economy and other domestic policies but taken together they present significant hurdles for Romney, whose difficulty in connecting with voters has been a constant problem of his campaign.

"Those personal attributes are soft metrics," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "But they contribute to how much a voter trusts and feels comfortable with a candidate."

AN 'IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY'

Wednesday's debate is expected to be seen by about 60 million television viewers and will give voters a chance to compare Obama and Romney side-by-side for the first time.

The Denver debate will focus on domestic policy and will be followed by a town hall-type session on October 16 in Hempstead, New York, and a session on foreign policy in Boca Raton, Florida, on October 22. The events will offer the candidates a way to cut through the considerable political noise surrounding a campaign in which more than $2 billion is being spent, much of it to attack the opposition.

For Romney, the debates represent his best chance to reverse voters' views of how he stacks up against Obama by pressing his argument that Obama is a failure in managing the economy. The debates also will give Romney a chance to bolster his personal image, which has taken a beating in polls as Obama's team has cast him as an out-of-touch rich guy who, while leading Bain Capital, sent thousands of U.S. jobs overseas.

"The debates are absolutely the right forum to move those numbers" in the polls, Clark said. "If Romney can gain ground on some of those personal questions, it could help him."

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has been taking time off the campaign trail for weeks to prepare for the debates, which a campaign adviser acknowledged on Monday represent an "important opportunity."

"I think that focusing on the issues that people care about can make you more likable," Romney senior adviser Kevin Madden said.

"And people will come away from the debates saying, 'You know what, Governor Romney, he understands some of the problems I'm facing every single day and he's got solutions to help overcome the country's challenges. And as a result I feel better about my vote for him,'" Madden said.

DEFINING ROMNEY

Obama's rise in recent nationwide and state polls has been aided by what several polls have identified as increasing optimism about the direction of the country, even as the economy continues to struggle.

Reuters/Ipsos data shows Obama ahead of Romney 42 percent to 38 percent on the question of who would better lead the economy and 44 percent to 39 percent on who has the better plan to create jobs.

Obama's campaign spent much of the summer and millions of dollars on ads that portrayed Romney as unable to relate to the concerns of middle-class Americans and criticized his leadership at Bain Capital, which critics say plundered some of the companies it took over and cut jobs in the name of profits.

The Reuters/Ipsos polling of more than 1,600 likely voters indicates the tactics seemed to work.

On the question of which candidate has the right values, Obama leads 47 percent to 37 percent. On which candidate is tough enough for the job, Obama leads by 45 percent to 38 percent, and on the question of which candidate better represents America, Obama leads 48 percent to 38 percent.

"The White House has done the most effective job I've seen in negatively defining an opponent," said Peter Brown of the nonpartisan Quinnipiac University poll. "They have made Romney, in the eyes of many voters, a rich, unfeeling elitist who does not understand how Americans live their lives."

Romney will have a chance to turn around that perception in Wednesday's debate. A Quinnipiac poll released on Tuesday found nearly one in 10 voters believed they could see something in the debates that would change their vote - a potentially significant number in a tight race.

It also showed that a solid majority of voters expect Obama to win the debate, giving Romney an advantage in expectations heading into the encounter.

"Romney does have a low bar," Brown said. "The public expectation is that Obama is going to clean his clock."

(Editing by David Lindsey, Bill Trott and Vicki Allen)

Aleppo triple bombing kills at least 31 - Washington Post

Posted: 03 Oct 2012 08:59 AM PDT

BEIRUT — Three massive bomb blasts ripped through the heart of Syria's commercial capital, Aleppo, on Tuesday, killing at least 31 people and causing widespread damage to a major square amid continuing clashes between government forces and rebels for control of the city.

The bombs, which apparently targeted a military officers' club, went off in rapid succession shortly before 8 a.m. The club was demolished, and the blasts also tore the facades off several nearby buildings in Saadallah al-Jabri Square, a part of the city that is tightly controlled by the government.
Kredit: www.nst.com.my
Langgan: Catatan (Atom)
 

NST Online

Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved