NBC/WSJ poll: NRA more popular than entertainment industry

As Washington prepares for a political battle over the Obama White House's proposals to curb gun violence after the Newtown, Conn., shootings, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that the National Rifle Association is more popular than the entertainment industry.

Forty-one percent of adults see the NRA -- the nation's top gun lobby -- in a positive light, while 34 percent view it in a negative light.

By comparison, just 24 percent have positive feelings about the entertainment industry, and 39 percent have negative ones.

The NRA's fav/unfav score is virtually unchanged from its 41 percent-to-29 percent rating in the Jan. 2011 NBC/WSJ poll, nearly two years before the Newtown shootings.

"That seems to me to be a pretty remarkably stable figure," says GOP pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart.

But it's a substantial improvement from the 1990s, when the NRA's negative ratings outweighed its positive ones in the NBC/WSJ survey.

The current poll also shows a sharp divide between attitudes among gun owners and non-gun owners.

Among those who own a gun, 62 percent view the NRA favorably. But that percentage drops to just 25 percent among those who don't.

The full poll -- which was conducted Jan. 12-15 of 1,000 adults (including 300 cell phone-only respondents), and which has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points -- will be released at 6:30 pm ET.

Via: First Read

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Fox News Has Highest Telecast Ever with Final Presidential Debate

NBC was the most-watched network for the final presidential debate last night with 12.391 million viewers tuning in. ABC was next with 11.730 million, according to Nielsen Fast National numbers. But the 11.474 million that watched on Fox News were enough to give the network its most-watched telecast ever. Fox News’s previous record was set in 2008 when VP nominees Gov. Sara Palin and Sen. Joe Biden debated. On that night 11.098 million watched. Fox News also topped CBS and beat the combined viewership of MSNBC and CNN.

On the three cable and three broadcast networks the debate was watched by 53.9 million people. The total will likely be down from the two previous debates when all networks are added up. The candidates faced stiff competition from Monday Night Football on ESPN (10.66 million viewers) and Game 7 of the NLCS on FOX (8.1 million viewers).

• Broadcast Fast Nationals 9-10:34pm:

NBC: 12,391,341 in total viewers / 5,839,648 in 25-54
ABC: 11,730,247 in total viewers / 4,361,952 in 25-54
CBS: 8,437,098 in total viewers / 3,564,135 in 25-54

• Broadcast post-Debate analysis 10:34-11pm

NBC: 9.327 million total viewers / 3.6 rating in 25-54
ABC: 8.052 million total viewers /2.6 rating in 25-54
CBS: 6.167 million total viewers / 2.3 rating in 25-54

• Cable coverage 9:00-10:30pm:

FNC: 11,474,835 in total viewers  /3,433,142 in 25-54
CNN: 5,808,405 in total viewers  /2,475,772 in 25-54
MSNBC: 4,063,673 in total viewers / 1,701,793 in 25-54

• Cable primetime 8:00-11:00pm

FNC: 9,068,124 in total viewers / 2,586,259 in 25-54
CNN: 4,374,775 in total viewers / 1,833,421 in 25-54
MSNBC: 3,295,125 in total viewers / 1,345,369 in 25-54

• First 2012 Debate: 67.2 million
• 2012 VP Debate: 51.4 million
• Second 2012 Debate: 65.6 million
• Third 2012 Debate: 59.2 million

Via: TVNewser

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JUST MORE WORDS: Still Not Clear On Second Term Agenda

Team Obama Spends Sunday Morning Being Asked Where And What Is Obama’s Vision For A Second Term?

OBAMA SURROGATES SPENT THEIR SUNDAY MORNING FACING QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT OBAMA WILL DO IN A SECOND TERM

NBC’s David Gregory: “ Has The President Spent More Time Trying To Disqualify Romney As An Alternative Than Affirmatively Saying What A Second Term Would Actually Look Like?” NBC’s DAVID GREGORY: “Generally, the attack that has come on this president from his opposition, from Governor Romney and from Paul Ryan, and you heard it from Senator Rubio, a lack of a second term agenda. Is it fair, that criticism? Has the president spent more time trying to disqualify Romney as an alternative than affirmatively saying what a second term would actually look like?” (NBC‘s “Meet The Press,” 10/21/12)

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “Can You Counter It And Lay Out Exactly What President Obama Would Do In A Second Term?” GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: “He seems to be getting some traction with that argument. Can you counter it and lay out exactly what President Obama would do in a second term?” (ABC’s “This Week,” 10/21/12)

• Stephanopoulos: “It Sounds Like What You’re Saying Is That What You Want Is More Of What We Had The Last Four Years.” (ABC’s “This Week,” 10/21/12)

OBAMA HAS HAD PLENTY OF TIME TO GIVE HIS SECOND TERM PLANS BUT VOTERS HAVE BEEN LEFT IN THE DARK

The Washington Post’s Dan Balz: Obama Has Been “Rightly Criticized For Not Being More Specific About His Second-Term Agenda.” “The president has rightly been criticized for not being more specific about his second-term agenda. What economic policies does he have that he hasn’t already tried? What is he truly prepared to do on the deficit?”(Dan Balz, “For Obama and Romney, Monday’s Debate Is Crucial,” The Washington Post, 10/20/12)

• “Having Gone This Far, It’s Not Likely He Will Start Filling In Those Blanks In The Final Two Weeks. He Prefers To Tell Voters Why They Should Fear Romney.” (Dan Balz, “For Obama and Romney, Monday’s Debate Is Crucial,” The Washington Post, 10/20/12)

• Obama Hasn’t Restored “A Sense Of Faith And Optimism About The Next Four Years.” “But what he also hasn’t done yet is restore a sense of faith and optimism about the next four years. That’s what Michael Jones was looking for last week, not merely a recitation of a litany of actions undertaken. It remains a missing piece in the president’s message.” (Dan Balz, “For Obama and Romney, Monday’s Debate Is Crucial,” The Washington Post, 10/20/12)

VIa: GOP.com

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So Helpful! Media offers questions, advice to top Obama campaign strategist

'DEVOID OF HONESTY': Obama campaign relaunches character attack on Romney

VIDEO: Obama: Last night was not the 'real Mitt Romney'

DNC: Romney wants to 'go back to war in Iraq ... Al Gore blames altitude

LIE DETECTOR TEST: Inconclusive ... RNC ad attacks Obama's 'smirk'

Surrounded by whooping Republicans and suddenly unfavorable data, chief Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod called in the media cavalry today.

And several reporters on the 11:15 a.m. phone conference promptly offered questions that bordered on advice.

“Axe, I’m not sure you can hear me, David,” said NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, when she was invited to ask a question Oct. 4.

“I’m wondering whether the president, whether you have rethought the strategy of not bringing up either women’s issues, or the 47 percent or some of the other issues that have worked so well for you in your campaign advertising and in your stump speech?”

“I understand that there are a lot — particularly our supporters … who would have liked him to have, you know, entered into the record Bain, the tax returns and certainly the 47 percent” issues, Axelrod replied.

Early in the conference, “Axe” urged the reporters to investigate Romney’s statements during his win at the Denver debate against President Barack Obama.

“We are going to hold Gov. Romney accountable for the things he said last night … as I hope you will make him justify those claims, because we need a honest and a genuine and realistic plan to move forward as a country … not just a bunch of lines designed to get you through a debate.”

Via: Daily Caller

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Networks Favor Romney '47%' 13-1 Over Obama 'Redistribution'

In a clear sign of where their heart lies, the Big Three TV networks, by a whopping 13 to 1 margin, devoted much more coverage to Mitt Romney's month's old "47 percent" secret video than to President Obama's 14-year-old but just discovered wealth "redistribution" audio.

Over the three days this week that they hit the media, network morning shows and evening news devoted one hour, 28 minutes, 23 seconds to the Romney tape over 42 stories and just six minutes, 28 seconds over eight stories to the Obama clip.

And even if the timeline is shortened to the Tuesday night release of the Obama audio, the ratio is 10-1, according to an analysis provided to Secrets from conservative media watchdog Media Research Center.

And their analysis doesn't include Thursday night's NBC Saturday Night Live Weekend Update hit on the 47 percent tape or print coverage of the comments that NBC News anchor Brian Williams suggested was a "game changer" in the election still stuck at 47 percent to 47 percent according to Gallup.

"The double-standard within just one week of the news cycle is staggering. A surreptitiously taken video of Mitt Romney published by leftist magazine Mother Jones outpaced coverage of an Obama tape at a public event by a 10 to 1 ratio. It has to be asked if the scenarios were reversed and it was a hidden camera video of Obama published by the conservative National Review would the liberal media have reacted as excitedly?" asked MRC.

MRC collected some of the media's characterization of the Romney video that suggested it would doom his campaign:

"The media's furor over the Romney tape began on Monday night, September 17, when NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams teased viewers about Romney comments that he promised will 'raise eyebrows when heard.' By Tuesday morning the Big Three journalists were in full attack mode against Romney. ABC's Amy Robach, on Good Morning America, exclaimed: 'New bombshell rocking the Mitt Romney campaign.' ABC's George Stephanopoulos wondered where Romney's comments would 'register on the Richter Scale?' Later that evening, on ABC's World News, anchor Diane Sawyer joined her colleague in the tectonic imagery as she told viewers of the 'political earthquake that occurred on a seismic day' for the campaign."

Via: The Washington Examiner

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MSM's Bias Continues to Help Elect Obama: Aggressive on 'Secret Romney Tape' But Lax on O's Failed Foreign and Economic Policies

NBC’s Williams Jumps to Highlight Surreptitiously-Recorded Romney Comments, Insists They Will ‘Raise Eyebrows When Heard’

Once again serving as the broadcast arm of MSNBC, Monday’s NBC Nightly News devoted a full segment to the supposed outrage over what Mitt Romney said in a surreptitiously-recorded video promoted by the left wing Mother Jones magazine, remarks which Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow put at the top of their MSNBC shows. And CNN soon joined in the hysteria with Anderson Cooper 360 treating it as “Breaking News.”

 

Of course, Romney had simply provided an obvious assessment of the state of the electorate where many have an “entitlement” mentality and nearly half avoid the income tax.

 

In an online post, David Corn of Mother Jones, who appeared on Hardball, summarized Romney’s comments:

 

During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them.

And the inaccuracy is?

 

Nonetheless, NBC anchor Brian Williams insisted “the GOP presidential candidate is heard giving a snapshot of the electorate that is going to raise eyebrows when heard.” Williams correctly observed, without acknowledging how NBC had taken a side:  “It’s another eye of the beholder issue, people will make what they make of these comments coming out tonight.”

Via: Fox News

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Poll: Approval of Obama foreign policy drops 12 Points Since last week

Approval of President Obama's handling of foreign policy has taken a beating since last month, according to a new NBC/WSJ poll taken after violence erupted last week in Egypt and Libya. 

The poll found approval among registered voters dropped to 49 percent, down from from 54 percent a month earlier, NBC's FirstRead reports. The fall was steeper among independents, going from 53 percent in August to 41 percent. Even support among Republicans dropped eight points -- from 19 percent to 10 percent.

NBC did not immediately release results about Mitt Romney's foreign policy approval. The full poll results are scheduled to be released Tuesday evening. The survey was conducted in the days following the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, from Sept. 12 through 16.

Via: Politico

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Black pastor uses lynching photo to help get out the vote

A pastor in Indiana has put up a sign that uses a historical image of the 1930 lynching of two black teenagers in an effort to recharge the black vote. Rev. Joy Thornton, the senior pastor of Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Indianapolis, said he’s concerned that African-Americans have grown complacent about voting, and he wants to urge people to exercise the right he says was hard won, the Associated Press reported.

The sign, which has stood for nearly a week along the street in front of the church, shows, on one side, a white mob gathered around the teens to watch the lynching in Marion, Ind. Atop the photo is the word “VOTE!!!” Beneath it is the question: “Is this a reason to vote?” The other side of the sign shows an image of slaves in chains, with wording beneath it that reads, “Lest we forget.”

“[The sign] is to let people know there’s been a price paid for the privilege of voting,” Thornton, a black pastor of what he describes as a multiracial congregation, told Indianapolis' WISH TV. “Oftentimes people get complacent and don’t realize that people made a sacrifice, matter of fact, the ultimate sacrifice for such a privilege.”

Via: NBC News

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DNC CHAIR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA: REPUBLICANS “CAN’T JUST TROT OUT A BROWN FACE”

(NBC NEWS) TAMPA, Fla. — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that Republicans “can’t just trot out a brown face” to make inroads with the Latino community, an increasingly important growing bloc.

As the GOP prepares to showcase some of its rising Hispanic stars during the next two days of its national convention, the Democratic mayor dismissed Republican overtures toward Latinos as insincere.

“You can’t just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate,” Villaraigosa said at a press conference here organized by the Democratic National Committee. “People are going to vote just like Anglos do, just like African-Americans do, and virtually every demographic group. They vote for people based on what they say, what they’ve done, and what they’re going to do,” he later added.

Among the Latinos speaking in Tuesday’s Republican National Convention programming are Rep. Francisco Canseco, R-Texas. Sher Valenzuela, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Delaware, Republican Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Texas GOP Senate nominee Ted Cruz.

But, other staunch opponents of illegal immigration — like Iowa Rep. Steve King, who’s speaking as well on Tuesday — will also be among the featured voices in the day’s program.

“I don’t think it’s going to do much for him, frankly,” Villaraigosa said of the GOP’s overall message.

The Los Angeles mayor predicted that President Barack Obama would win “close to 70 percent” of the Latino vote in his re-election effort; Romney advisers have set a goal in the upper-30th percentile in targeting Hispanic voters.

Latino voters are of particular importance in swing states like Colorado, Florida and Virginia — a sign of shifting demographics that Republicans have worried would put them at a long-term political disadvantage unless they were to become more welcoming of Latinos.

Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Romney, said in response to today’s Democratic bracketing event: “Today, as we learn that more than a quarter of Democrats believe President Obama does not have a clear plan for creating jobs, his surrogates in Tampa continued to launch false and baseless attacks against Governor Romney.

The facts speak for themselves – with 23 million Americans struggling for work, nearly one in six Americans living in poverty, and median incomes declining, the Obama campaign cannot defend a record of broken promises and failed policies. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a plan to strengthen the middle class by creating jobs and turning around our economy.”

Via: Pat Dollard

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Beware of the Mainstream Media

A recent outburst by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was a near classic example of how some members of the media are so over the moon about Obama that it serves as a reminder that their long knives are out for the Romney-Ryan ticket.

Matthews’ man-crush on Obama is blatant, but I do take some heart from a recent Newsweek cover and article that tore Obama to shreds with facts and figures. It was so unusual, given the usual news magazine adoration accorded Obama that I found it odd, though welcome.

Much depends, of course, on the coverage that will be given by the network news channels, ABC, NBC, CBS, and we should include PBS as well. From my observation, only C-SPAN makes a good faith effort to provide balanced coverage of both parties and political viewpoints.

And, of course, there’s Fox News. “Fair, balanced and unafraid” is their motto, but Fox has been afraid to get anywhere close to the issues involving Obama’s blatantly false birth certificate, the fact that his closest advisors in the White House are committed Marxists, along with his long association with friends who fit that description such as Bill Ayers.

Moreover, Fox has liberal commentators such as Juan Williams on staff and invites liberals to share their views on air as well. That said, its conservative tilt makes it about the only TV news channel a conservative can watch without wanting to throw up

.

Matthews became incensed with GOP Chairman Reince Priebus during a recent discussion prior to the convention, riding his hobby horse that any criticism of Obama is racist. This charge is used to inoculate Obama against a reasoned examination of his policies, all of which have brought the nation to the brink of financial collapse, along with massive unemployment and other ills. In the area of foreign affairs, he has thoroughly weakened America’s capacity to influence the world.

Via: Canada Free Press

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Debbie Wasserman Shultz, Thank you for not Being a Republican

Recently we have seen an upturn in the number of members of the democrats that have taken to the cleaners by not only the conservative media but from people in their own party. This includes the main stream media and the left wing ideologues on the talk shows that have also been proved wrong in front of their audiences. Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Mathews and Ed Shultz from MSNBC again proved that there rhetoric is not fooling anyone including John Sununu former Governor of New Hampshire on the night of the NH Primaries.  But I will have to say they did keep their cool when they continued to get horsewhipped on every subject they touched on.

But my all-time favorite person that has a history of bending the truth is none other than current DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz. She has to be the epitome of what is wrong with the Democrat party on all levels.  She has time and time again tried valiantly to convince those among us that the direction that this country is heading is correct and the only way to go. In her recent attempt to justify Romney’s “Loses” in Iowa and New Hampshire she used almost the same talking points.  She said that “It was a bad night for Romney, A great night for Democrats” in Iowa and “He came out of this primary as a wounded candidate” in New Hampshire.  Even Mitt Romney felt sorry for her.  And it’s hard not to overlook that the incumbent president only got 86% of the vote in the democrat caucuses, and he ran unopposed.

She has continued to amaze us all as she continues to blame the Tea Party for the Tucson shootings and her continued support of the Occupy Wall Street movement which includes the stabbing of a police officer in NYC on January 2, 2012.  She had this to say about the Tea Party shortly thereafter “You had town hall meetings that (the Tea Party) tried to take over, and you saw the same type of conduct at those town hall meetings.  When they come in and disagree, you are not just wrong, you’re the enemy”.  There have been millions of people that have attended Tea Party rallies all over the country and there have been no arrests, unlike the OWS encampments that have had seen arrests in the thousands.

At other times she has said that the republicans have declared “a war on woman”, and taking our voting laws “literally back to Jim Crow”.  When asked by David Gregory of NBC after she claimed that President Obama was able to “turn the economy around” Gregory responded, "Whoa, whoa.  Let me just stop you there. Clearly, the economy has not been turned around.  You just saw those numbers.  Americans don't believe that's the case."  And again she blamed George Bush as everyone in their party still continues to do.  These comments along with many others have to keep you wondering why she is allowed to open her mouth let alone not be shown the door. 

All the while that she is traversing the country in support of this administration with her dime store rhetoric, she has left her constituents that have continually elected her since 2004 fending for themselves.  It is hard to imagine that she would ever get elected in the first place, no less four times.  It is at times like this that I am glad that she is not a republican.  If she would have done for the republicans what she has done for the democrats we would be a third world country.  Oh wait, this “IS” where we are headed.