Beginning with the caveat that it's only mid-July and therefore polls shouldn't be taken that seriously, have you seen the New York Times/CBS News poll on the presidential race? It shows Mitt Romney has a slight lead (45-43 percent) nationally.
Does that seem like the attacks on how long Romney worked at Bain Capital and his reluctance to release more of his taxes are hurting him? No, it doesn't. As has been speculated, obviously Mitt feels whatever heat he's getting right now for not releasing more of his previous year's tax returns is better than actually releasing them. Can the Obama team and the media keep on talking about this for three more months? Not bloody likely. The media will ultimately tire of it, which is what Romney is betting on. Is it a concern for all of us, that it appears that Romney is hiding something ? Sure, but the economy is still uber alles in this campaign. And in the Times poll, only 39 percent appreciate the president's work on the economy, while 55 percent disapprove. Yes, it's just one national poll in the middle of the summer, so let' s not make too much about it. Romney is getting killed in the press on these issues, yet it doesn't appear to be hurting him much.
Meanwhile President Obama is doing pretty well with the rarely discussed Asian-American vote, though a new poll shows that Asians are more conservative in Florida than in the rest of the nation.
Although most of the GOP establishment seems to have embraced the Tea Party ethos, there is still the establishment, and obviously the Tea Party folks don't like their a part of it. The night before the RNC in Tampa is the official welcoming party for delegates and reporters in St. Pete, but a consortium of Tea Party groups have rented out the bigger Raymond James Stadium for their own shindig at the same time.
Hillsborough County Commissioners are now investigating synthetic drugs...and Republican political consultant and media commentator Chris Ingram engaged in a debate with a man by the name of Tom Trento at the Tampa Tiger Bay Club yesterday about the alleged evils of Islam. Our report is here.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2012.