Politics
- No immediate lift for Romney from picking Ryan | Reuters
- November 2012 And The Choice We Face | Addicting Info
- I Read Everything About Paul Ryan So You Don’t Have To « The Weekly Sift
- The politics of fear – BostonHerald.com
- Ryan Plan Would Nearly Eliminate Romney’s Taxes | Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- The Coming Obama Landslide —How Paul Ryan makes a big win much more likely for the current president.
In terms of demographics, Mitt Romney has one path to victory: overwhelming support from white voters. At the least, he’ll have to outperform every Republican since Ronald Reagan, and win 60 percent of their votes. And this is if minority turnout is at its 2008 levels. If it increases, he needs even more whites to make up the difference.
Seniors play a key part in this coalition. The New Republic’s Nate Cohn puts it bluntly: “Romney’s road to the White House runs through seniors.” John McCain won 51 percent of seniors, beating Obama by four percentage points. At the moment, Cohn notes, Obama’s support among this group is in the low 40s. If the former Massachusetts governor can outperform McCain and crush Obama among older Americans, he can eke out a narrow win. But if Obama can hold his own—and move closer to his 2008 total—he’ll have secured victory.
Enter Paul Ryan. As a congressman, the Wisconsin representative’s signature accomplishment is a proposal to reform entitlements, particularly Medicare. In its original incarnation, Ryan’s Medicare reforms would replace guaranteed health care with a vouchers, which seniors could use to purchase health insurance on a private market. Because Ryan designs his vouchers to fall behind rising medical costs, most seniors would find themselves forced to pay more out of pocket. (read the complete article…)
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Climate & Climate Politics
The Culture Wars
- Why I won’t take part in debate with fundamentalists – Richard Dawkins – for the Press and Journal – RichardDawkins.net
- Atheism & Divorce: Divorce Rates for Atheists are Among the Lowest in America – Why Do Conservative Christian Defenders of Marriage Get Divorced Most?
U.S. divorce rates: for various faith groups, age groups and geographical areas
…A recent study by the Barna Research Group throws extreme doubt on these estimates. Barna released the results of their poll about divorce on 1999-DEC-21. 1 They had interviewed 3,854 adults from the 48 contiguous states. The margin of error is ±2 percentage points. The survey found:
- 11% of the adult population is currently divorced.
- 25% of adults have had at least one divorce during their lifetime.
- Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience.