US President Barack Obama took his re-election campaign to Wisconsin on Saturday, as a new poll shows him surging in the state where liberal and conservative political ideologies have been sparring over unions, budgets and the public sector.
“We don’t think government can solve every problem, but it’s not the source of every problem, any more than all the folks that you hear are to blame out of Washington — you know, gays or immigrants or unions or corporations for that matter,” Obama said in a speech at the Milwaukee Theater.
“We don’t think that anybody is solely to blame for the challenges we face, but we do believe we’re all responsible to solve those problems,” he added.
Obama won the state in the 2008 election, but a repeat of that victory is threatened by his opponent Mitt Romney’s choice of running mate — Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan — and by the boost Republicans received when Governor Scott Walker won an election to recall him over a law limiting public workers’ rights.
Obama is squarely ahead in Wisconsin, with an NBC-Wall Street Journal-Marist poll saying he has the support of 50 percent of likely voters compared with Romney’s 45 percent.
The president also polled at 50 percent in two other swing states — Iowa and Colorado.
When Ryan was put on the ticket in August, Obama’s advantage in Wisconsin had shrunk in some polls and two polls had shown Romney leading by one point.
“I think you will see a tightening in the national polls going forward. What I care way more about is Ohio, Colorado, Virginia, Wisconsin, etc,” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said. “I feel our pathways to victory are there. There are two different campaigns, one in the battlegrounds and one everywhere else.”
Walker, who is supported by members of the conservative Tea Party and wealthy Republican donors, signed legislation last year curbing the bargaining rights of unionized state workers and limiting their compensation.
That set off a wave of protests and a movement to recall Walker backed by the unions. Romney’s grassroots supporters helped Walker win the recall vote in a blow to the Democrats that cast a doubt over whether Obama could win the state in November.
“Because of the recall election, they test-drove their car whereas in other states they haven’t,” Messina said. “It would make sense they’re strong here, as are we. They are stronger than McCain was in 2008, no question, on the ground,” he said, referring to Republican Senator John McCain who lost to Obama four years ago.
Labor generally supports Democrats and the major unions have endorsed Obama, but some union members have expressed concern about his absence during the recall. Obama did not mention the conflict in his speech and, according to his campaign, did not meet with Walker during what was his first campaign visit to the state this year.
A state judge declared the law unconstitutional this month.
The Romney campaign’s Wisconsin manager Danny O’Driscoll noted that since Obama won the 2008 election, the state has unseated long-serving Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, put Republicans in control of the state assembly and elected Republicans to two congressional seats previously held by Democrats.
Since comments Romney made at a private fundraiser about 47 percent of Americans depending on the government were made public this month, the Obama campaign has seized on the opportunity to portray Romney as an out-of-touch elitist who does not care about the people he seeks to lead.
Still, two tracking polls conducted over the last week — Rasmussen and Gallup — put the presidential election at a dead heat.
While Romney spent Saturday promoting his ideas about security and space, his campaign greeted Obama with a billboard noting the president’s absence from the state that read: “President Obama, in the 220 days you’ve been gone: Our national debt has increased US$617 billion. 23 million Americans are struggling for work. Wisconsin can do better.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the