2012 GOP Nomination Standings, Week 4

Click Here for Prior Weeks Standings:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3


1) Mitt Romney Trending Even (Last Week: 1)- While the field continues to morph below him, Romney maintains his numbers at the top in the polls and in fundraising. He has solid name recognition, the question is: are there enough moderate GOP primary voters out there to counteract the “anyone but Romney” hardline conservatives that will be organizing in force against him.
Current Headline: Mitt Romney: No Apologies on Climate Change Stance

2) Sarah Palin Trending Down (Last Week: 2)- A well publicized gaffe on colonial history sums up both how dedicated Palin’s core supporters are, and exactly why she will never garnish enough mainstream credentials for the nation’s highest office. Watch out for the emails being released soon in Alaska, it may sink her 2012 hopes once, and for all, if something earth-shattering comes out of those documents.
Current Headline: Sarah Palin and the Wikipedia War Over Paul Revere

3) Herman Cain Trending Up (Last Week: 10)- The former Pizza Exec skyrocketed up the polls and the rankings this week. He has stolen the tea party mantle right out of the hands of Paul and Bachman. Talk radio loves him, and he certainly qualifies for outsider status in the political game. The downside is any unknown quirks or scandals that have yet to come to the surface.
Current Headline: Herman Cain: A Longshot’s Steady Rise

4) Tim Pawlenty Trending Up (Last Week: 8)- With other candidates dropping out and blowing up, Pawlenty’s previous weakness, his steady, boring approach to the campaign, has come around to lift his ranking and status up. He could map out a path to the nomination with a strong showing in Iowa.
Current Headline: Pawlenty Bets Big on Reaganomics, but Some Economists Say It Won't Work

5) Ron Paul Trending Even (Last Week: 5)- Paul is who he is. He has a lockdown on this #5 spot because of his poll numbers, but the most authentically libertarian of the candidates will not be able to expand his base without compromising his values, something he will all but certainly refuse to do.
Current Headline: Candidate Ron Paul thinks GOP, Nation Moving Closer to His Libertarian Views

6) Michele Bachman Trending Up (Last Week: 7)- Bachman is looking more and more like she will make a serious run in 2012 as she organizes campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire. She is now starting to go hard at the political figure who most mirrors her own style and following, trying to separate her image from that of Sarah Palin.
Current Headline: Palin, Bachmann Camps Feud Over Who Gets To Be Defined As A 'Serious' Candidate

7) Newt Gingrich Trending Down (Last Week: 4)- After a totally disastrous showing on Meet the Press where he bashed Paul Ryan’s budget plan as “Rightwing Social Engineering” and an ill-timed European Luxury Vacation, Gingrich’s staff has mutinied on him. The Gingrich campaign has blown up like a cartoon cigar, right in his face. He is down, is he on the verge of being out?
Current Headline: Will Gingrich’s Staff Exodus Kill His 2012 Chances?

8) Rick Perry Trending Up (Last Week: Unranked)- Rumblings are that Perry is serious about getting into this race. Gingrich going down in flames could be the best thing to ever happen for the Texas Governor. Perry is a proven and polished campaigner. It should be interesting to see if he gets his bid off the ground.
Current Headline: Perry Watch: Is Rick Perry Playing Games With the Date of the 2012 Texas Primary For His Own Gain?

9) Rick Santorum Trending Down (Last Week: 6)- Santorum has officially announced his bid, but continues to stay in the bottom half of the polls and the rankings. It seems like he doesn’t have a lot of room to gain any traction. The former Senator from a trending blue swing State Commonwealth may be able to, at best, position himself well on the VEEP list with a good showing in the debates.
Current Headline: Rick Santorum: The Hapless Holy Warrior Starts Another Crusade

10) John Huntsman Trending Up (Last Week: Unranked)- Zero name recognition, but there is plenty of time for Huntsman to close that gap. And with the field above him full of flawed candidates and gaffe potential, the former ambassador may be able to crawl through the early campaign minefield unscathed and become a player in this contest.
Current Headline: Huntsman Hones a Dovish Foreign Policy Pitch to Republicans

If you are interested in anything else in regards to these rankings, please leave a comment below or email me: zargoflaroche@yahoo.com

The Weight

Take a load off Corbett, and you can put that load right on me.

PA governor Tom Corbett has vowed not to raise state taxes, to reduce spending, eliminate a deficit, turn water into wine, lower corporate taxes, layoff employees, and yet somehow increase the commonwealth's tax revenues. Changing water into wine might actually be the most doable of the group after the layoffs.

Many level-headed people have noted that reducing the number of individuals employed while also reducing corporate taxes is probably NOT going to lead to an increase in tax revenue. Just doing a simple bit of associative math, it seems more than probable such a policy would fail. Less People paying Taxes + Plus less Tax Revenue from Corporations= More Tax Revenue? I don't need to be an accountant to tell you that kind of math simply doesn't add up.

So now, for at least the second time in less than 7 days, another Western PA municipality is announcing their plan to raise property taxes in order to offset the cut in state aid to their school districts. So while Corporate Corbett may be right that he personally did not raise state taxes, these local hikes are a not too distant product of his slash and burn education budget.

The same schools that were good enough for his own two children to attend are now left to be the bad guy while he bathes in gas drilling money at the gubernatorial mansion. 

AP IMPACT: CEO pay exceeds pre-recession level

CEO's are now making more then they where in 2007, the year before the Great Recession hit. Unemployment however is still double what it was back then. And that is not including those Working Class Americans who took actual paycuts or found lesser work to keep feeding and housing their families while the richest of the rich climbed their way back comfortably, right back into their fatcat seats.

Stories like this can just make you sick with rage. Remember things like this when we hear talk about how 'raising taxes on the rich will only hurt the economy.' After all the misguided harm these bastards have done, they are making more, and not paying one red cent more in taxes, while the rest of the Country SUFFERS for their mistakes.



By RACHEL BECK, AP Business Writer Rachel Beck, Ap Business Writer – Fri May 6, 8:36 am ET
NEW YORK – In the boardroom, it's as if the Great Recession never happened.

CEOs at the nation's largest companies were paid better last year than they were in 2007, when the economy was booming, the stock market set a record high and unemployment was roughly half what it is today.

The typical pay package for the head of a company in the Standard & Poor's 500 was $9 million in 2010, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data provided by Equilar, an executive compensation research firm. That was 24 percent higher than a year earlier, reversing two years of declines.

Executives were showered with more pay of all types — salaries, bonuses, stock, options and perks. The biggest gains came in cash bonuses: Two-thirds of executives got a bigger one than they had in 2009, some more than three times as big.

CEOs were rewarded because corporate profits soared in 2010 as the economy gradually got stronger and companies continued to cut costs. Profit for the companies in the AP analysis rose 41 percent last year.

More Details and Breakdown are available here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_ceo_pay

Our Country faces record deficits and huge questions about its future ability to provide a comfortable, middle class life style to its working peoples. When are some of these Tea Party folk going to get around to realizing that Government is not the only problem in town, and that these pigs on Wall Street are just as liable for the unenviable situation the vox populi find themselves in?

How has the outrage that has been centered on Barrack Obama's plan to contain healthcare costs and provide better coverage options to all Americans overshadowed the overwhelming question of what are we going to do about the out of control excesses of the Corporate Classes? Where are people in the streets protesting such a blatant economic injustice?

The Rich Get Richer

At least in New York, they will be. Governor Andrew Cuomo is set to allow a surcharge on wealthy taxpayers to expire at the end of this year. The tax applied to high earning individuals and joints filers, starting at $200,000 annually for single filers and $300,000 for married couples. For a married couple earning $350,000 per year, the surcharge was $3,500 or 1%. If this "give back" is supposed to help stimulate the New York economy, then Governor Cuomo may be barking up the wrong tree.

In a recent New York Times article regarding the tax cut, nearly every person with whom the writer spoke said they do not plan to spend any of it but instead will put it into college savings. One individual mentioned that he did not even notice the additional tax when he paid it and didn't mind because he does well financially. Another individual mentioned he won't be spending the extra cash on fancy lunches or extravagant items because he already does that now. While that certainly shows two completely opposite views, a majority of those interviewed still had no plans to further stimulate the economy with their minor windfall.

What I have learned about situations like these, tax cuts for the rich, is just how extremely polarizing they can be. There are many people who are not even close to the top earning brackets, and probably never will be, who blindly support these tax cuts because they envision themselves there someday. There are others, like myself, who know that $3,500 to a couple earning over $350,000 per year means a lot less to them than it would to a couple earning $90,000 per year. I also know that the couple earning $90,000 per year is feeling a lot more of the financial burden in terms of inflation, out of control interest rates, and soaring higher education costs.But with people so quick to side with the "haves" in a nation made up mostly of "have nots", it's unlikely that situation will ever change.

For being one of the richest nations in the world, America is not filled with many people who are actually rich at all. In reality, we have a staggering number of  individuals, nearly 13%, living at or below the poverty line and many well regarded experts feel that is grossly understated. Only 15% of Americans earn over $100,000 per year and only 1.5% over $250,000, yet  there is an abnormally large contingent supporting tax cuts for the highest earning rich despite only making up 1.5% of the population? As someone who works with numbers, that simply doesn't add up but it certainly follows the Golden Rule which states: " The one who has the gold makes the rules".