DENVER, CO. (Catholic Online) - The Obama campaign issued a press release on Wednesday officially denying the truth of the two stories we published on the Obama campaign push calls to a Catholic voter in Pittsburgh named Joy Allen.
It does not matter, it happened and it was wrong.
Each of the callers began to read from exactly the same script. The script contained claims that President Obama was not pro-abortion and that Planned Parenthood did not emphasize its abortion services (no kidding!).
But, the part of the story that is finding traction in the mainstream media is this question from the script:
"How can you support a Mormon who does not believe in Jesus Christ?"
This instance of "playing the Mormon card" is a tactic which both the President and his campaign manager promised would not be employed.
Here is the statement from the Obama campaign denying the push call story:
"As a campaign, we have made it unequivocally clear that a candidate's religion is out of bounds. The activity that is being attributed to the Obama Campaign and our Catholics For Obama program is categorically false. When we talk to voters about what's at stake, we talk about Mitt Romney promising to repeal healthcare, slash education, and his support of an economic policy that pays for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires with tax increases on the middle class."
The implication of this statement is clear: If the story is "categorically false" then either Joy Allen or Deal Hudson is lying.
What can be said in response to someone who calls you a liar? We are not going to waste our breath in responding -- neither Hudson nor Allen invented the story, and, frankly, both were stunned that the Obama campaign would do anything so stupid.
In fact, if we were to brainstorm about what kinds of mistakes the Obama campaign might make to completely embarrass their candidate, it would have never occurred to us that attacking Gov. Romney's faith would be on the list. Why? Because the backlash would be so instantaneous and damaging -- as it is right now!
The basic facts of the story are contained in the original stories, but two facts common to both stories should be underscored: Both of the women who called Joy Allen identified themselves as "being from the Obama campaign" and as "a practicing Catholic voting for Obama." This is precisely what the Obama campaign denies.
Several members of the media have attempted to contact Joy Allen directly, but no one has attempted to contact Deal Hudson in spite of the fact that the Obama campaign has called his story "categorically false."
When Joy Allen decides to, she will accept another media platform to tell her story again. When the public hears from Allen herself, the Obama campaign will find itself in the embarrassing situation of having dismissed her story in advance. Her retelling will leave no doubt in anyone's mind as to its veracity.
Tonight (Wednesday), in the first of three important Presidential debates in this critical election, Mitt Romney shocked the main stream media and knocked President Barack Obama down to the mat - at least figuratively - in what would be called a TKO, a technical knock out, in most Martial Arts competitions. Romney won this first and critical debate in technique, delivery, command of facts, courage and ideas. He did so decisively! Even the Obama cheering squad in the main stream media had to admit this fact.
The news over the next 24 hours will demonstrate that this first Presidential debate marked a turning point in this critical election.The only question is how much the poll numbers will actually change - and how quickly? The pundits will pontificate over what it might mean for the next two debates but no-one can doubt which of these two candidates had the "eye of the tiger".
Even as the Press spread out seeking first reactions, the "spin rooms" of the campaigns were not arguing over which of the two candidates won - but only over how big of an effect Mitt Romney's decisive win this Wednesday evening will have on the outcome of this pivotal Presidential election. This debate was, as they say, a "game changer".
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Private-sector job gains. President Obama said the U.S. economy has created 5 million private-sector jobs the past 30 months. Facts: The U.S. has gained 4.6 million private-sector jobs since the labor market bottomed in February 2010, or 5.1 million under preliminary revisions released last week.
Tax cuts. Obama says Romney's tax plan would cut taxes by $5 trillion over 10 years, inflating the deficit. Facts: Romney has proposed cutting tax rates by 20 percent in each bracket, which, the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says would cost $4.9 trillion over 10 years. Romney said he would not raise taxes and would not approve any tax cut that would expand the deficit. He argued that tax cuts will increase investment, putting more people to work and increasing the taxpaying population.
The middle class. Romney said middle-class families' income is down $4,300 since Obama took office. Facts: According to a March 2012 analysis by consulting firm Sentier Research, Romney was correct. What Romney didn't say is that the decline in real median household income has been occurring over the course of the past decade, well before Obama took office. The trend has continued under the Obama administration, but it did not originate there.
Taxes for the wealthy. Romney says he wouldn't cut taxes on the wealthy. Romney wants to cut personal taxes by 20 percent for everyone, including the wealthy. Obama, however, wants to return taxes to Clinton-era rates for individuals who make more than $200,000 in annual taxable income. In other words, Romney wants to maintain tax cuts for the wealthy that Obama would eliminate.
Energy independence. North America will reportedly become energy independent under Romney's plan, creating four million jobs. Fact: This is likely to happen anyway, possibly as soon as the end of the decade.
Changes in drilling technology that have let America increase oil production faster than any other nation in the world in the past four years.
Medicare cuts. Romney said Obama's health care law cuts $716 billion from Medicare which will hurt current beneficiaries. Fact: Romney's claim that Obama's health care law cuts $716 billion in benefits for current Medicare beneficiaries is not true. The health care law will limit payments to health care providers and insurers - not senior citizens' benefits - as part of an effort to rein in costs over the course of the next decade.
Clean energy. Romney said clean energy interests got $90 billion in tax breaks under Obama, and that half of those companies receiving breaks went out of business. Fact: The president's 2009 stimulus bill included a combination of over $90 billion in spending, financing and tax breaks for clean energy investments. It is incorrect that half of those companies went bankrupt. Some of the Energy Department's loans went to firms that failed, most notably the solar energy company Solyndra, which cost taxpayers $535 million. In a 2011 story, USA TODAY reported that the stocks of many of 45 publicly traded companies receiving stimulus funds had outperformed the stock market, despite Solyndra and other, smaller failures.
.- Economic issues dominated the discussion at the first presidential debate of the election season, reflecting the widespread concern among Catholics, along with other American voters, about the national economy.
Frank Newport, editor in chief of Gallup, told CNA that when American voters are asked to rank election issues in order of importance, “the economy swamps everything else.”
Oct. 3 marked the first presidential debate of the 2012 election season. President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney squared off in a 90-minute debate at the University of Denver in Colorado.
The debate had a largely economic tone, as candidates talked about the nation’s struggling economy, high unemployment levels and soaring debt. They also discussed the role of government, health care reform and aid programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
Romney charged that Obama has failed to provide effective economic leadership over the past four years, while the president argued that Romney’s plan to reduce the deficit without raising taxes is unrealistic.
Prominent moral issues such as abortion, “gay marriage” and the federal contraception mandate were not discussed in the first meeting of the two contenders.
However, when asked about the federal deficit, Romney responded, “I think it’s not just an economic issue. I think it’s a moral issue.”
“I think it’s frankly not moral for my generation to keep spending massively more than we take in, knowing those burdens are going to be passed on to the next generation,” he said.
Newport explained that it is hard to judge how many Catholics would agree with Romney’s assessment of the debt as a critical “moral issue” because the question has not been commonly raised in polls.
However, he said, “Catholics are average on a lot of things” and tend to be representative of the general electorate on many campaign issues.
In September, Gallup asked voters about their perceptions of where the economy was headed. Newport said that “Catholics were exactly like the overall average.”
Among all Americans, 41 percent believed the economy was getting better, while 54 percent believed it was getting worse. Among Catholics, 41 percent believed the economy was getting better, while 53 percent believed it was getting worse.
Newport said that this pattern of Catholics tending to “mirror” the general American electorate holds true on many topics. And U.S. voters consistently rank the economy at the top of their list of concerns in this election, he added.
In August, The Catholic Association commissioned Magellan Strategies to conduct a poll of about 2,600 likely Catholic voters.
Seventy-two percent of respondents agreed that “America’s exploding federal debt hurts the poor the most.”
Sixty-six percent said “Catholics can disagree about the best way to serve the poor--for example, favoring private charity over government programs – without being 'bad' Catholics.”
While flash polls indicated that viewers overwhelmingly believed that Romney won the debate, the political results of the event can be difficult to measure, due to the “huge flow of events and information” entering the political playing field in the month of October, Newport explained.
Debates can make a difference, both individually and collectively, but “it’s hard to pinpoint how much,” he said.
While he believes that the Oct. 3 debate had the potential to influence voters, Newport said its relative gravity ultimately depends on a number of factors.
The remaining debates, changes in unemployment and paid advertising in swing states could all contribute to the final outcome of the election in ways that are not yet realized, the pollster stated.
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Stay tuned - there is much more to come.
