The Election 2012 Weekly Report: Getting to Arizona

Posted By Joshua Keating Friday, February 24, 2012 - 6:51 PM Share

Debating Syria

A Wednesday-night debate in Arizona was the first time the candidates discussed the deteriorating situation in Syria at any length, though mostly in the context of what it would mean for Iran's nuclear program and global energy prices. Mitt Romney did suggest that the United States work "with Saudi Arabia and with Turkey to ... provide the kind of weaponry that's needed to help the rebels inside Syria." Newt Gingrich, as he often does, suggesting a policy of having "our allies covertly helping destroy the Assad regime."

The debate was widely covered as a test for the surging Rick Santorum, who was attacked repeatedly, often by Ron Paul, on his credentials as a fiscal conservative. On national security issues, Santorum touted his long record of urging aggressive polices against Iran and criticized the Obama administration for standing with "radicals" against "a friend of ours in Egypt" -- ousted president Hosni Mubarak. He also seemed to pivot away from his previous concerns about women serving in more combat roles in the military, though he did warn against "social engineering."

Gingrich on the attack

Seemingly eclipsed by Santorum's rise, onetime poll leader Gingrich has repeatedly made news this week for strident attacks against Barack Obama's foreign policy. Gingrich referred to Obama as the "most dangerous president in modern American history" during a speech in Oklahoma, accusing him of putting political correctness above U.S. national security in his administration's response to Islamist terrorism.  Appearing on CBS's "This Morning," Gingrich called Obama's energy policies "outrageously anti-American'' and ridiculed the idea that the electric car "is going to liberate us from Saudi Arabia."

On Thursday, Gingrich again lashed out at Obama following the president's apology to Afghan authorities for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base. "He is consistently apologizing to people who do not deserve the apology of the United States," Gingrich said. The candidate went on to demand that the Afghan government apologize to the United States for the killing of two American soldiers in the riots that followed the burning.

Romney against the world

The AP's Steven Hurst examined Romney's foreign-policy rhetoric in a news analysis this week, writing that "It often appears that Romney is targeting the rest of the world as fiercely as he does his rivals for the party nomination and President Barack Obama." Referring to Romney's attacks on European socialism, Chinese currency manipulation and Russian duplicitousness, the article asks whether the tone of Romney's rhetoric will hurt him in the general election, or with the governments in question should he become president.

"Other governments are not naive, and they understand the rough-and-tumble of U.S. politics just as we understand the rough-and-tumble of politics in other countries," responded Amb. Richard Williamson, a top Romney foreign-policy advisor.

Obama: I'll get to immigration next term

The president came into office promising comprehensive immigration reform, but the issue has largely fallen by the wayside during congressional battles over health care and the economy. In an interview with Univision Radio this week, the president promised to make the issue a priority if he is reelected for a second term. "I've got another five years coming up. We're going to get this done," he said.

At Wednesday night's debate, both Santorum and Romney held up Arizona's tough immigration policies and the harsh tactics employed by controversial Maricopa Country Sherriff Joe Arpaio as models for how to address the issue. 

Santorum's Dutch disease

Santorum has left many scratching their heads with comments made several weeks ago in which he suggested that 1 in 20 deaths in the Netherlands result from forced euthanasia. Santorum continued to claim that elderly people in the Netherlands often wear bracelets that say "do not euthanize me" and "don't go to the hospital, they go to another country, because they're afraid because of budget purposes that they will not come out of that hospital if they go into it with sickness." The Dutch government declined to comment on the claim this week, but provided the New York Times with documents showing that there is no provision in Dutch law for forced euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia has been legal there since 2002 and accounts for around 2 percent of deaths in the country.

The Netherlands wasn't the only European country Santorum has taken a shot at this week. At a national security focused speech in Ohio, he took aim at the president's relationship with France: "He actually went to France a year or so ago and was with Nicolas Sarkozy and said that, 'Here I am with the French prime minister, our best ally in the world.' Now think about this. Name one time in the last 20 years that the French stood by us with anything."

The remark was given a "pants-on-fire" rating by Politifact.

What to watch for

Arizona and Michigan voters head to the polls on Tuesday. RealClearPolitics's latest poll average shows Romney with a 9-point advantage in Arizona. He also seems to have retaken the lead in his birthplace state of Michigan, but still leads Santorum by less than two points.

Tuesday's victor will have little time to rest on his laurels. The 10 Super Tuesday contests are right around the corner on March 6. The biggest delegate prizes of the day will be Ohio, where Santorum currently leads, and Georgia, where native son Gingrich has the advantage.

The latest from FP

Scott Clement looks at why polls are so all over the map when it comes to attacking Iran.

Joshua Keating rounds up the foreign-policy highlights from Wednesday's debate.

Uri Friedman examines Gingrich's not-so-covert love of covert ops.

Michael Cohen argues that campaign-trail rhetoric touting American exceptionalism is obscuring the real causes of decline.

Getty Images

EXPLORE:2012 REPORT, BARACK OBAMA, ELECTION 2012, MITT ROMNEY, NEWT GINGRICH, RICK SANTORUM, RON PAUL
 

AGENDA SOFTWARE

4:10 PM ET

February 26, 2012

I think they will bring the

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SHAFIQUE114

4:48 PM ET

February 26, 2012

For the week ending November

For the week ending November 6, 2011 the presidential election online buzz and traffic analytics focuses primarily on the GOP contenders battling it out for the republican nomination. Zeta Interactive is tracking statistics and analytics from several sources each week to compile a performance snapshot of the candidates’ online digital performance. Full analytical data is available upon request, while highlights of the weekly information are below taking the current news cycle context into account:

Cain’s Volume Buzz Soars, Tonal Buzz Drops:Amidst controversy and allegations of impropriety, Herman Cain was the center of the buzz over the past week. His volume buzz soared by 2%, bringing him to 23% of the overall volume buzz share surrounding all GOP candidates, 9% higher than that of Mitt Romney, whose volume buzz share dropped to 14%. Meanwhile, Cain’s tonal buzz ranking dropped significantly, moving from 74% positive to 69% positive, and placing him 4% behind Romney in the tonal category.

Overall Tonal Buzz Drops for GOP Candidates:The past week was an extremely low tonal buzz week for the GOP candidates, with 5 out of 7 candidates experiencing either a negative drop in buzz or no change in their buzz ranking, and not one candidate improving their tonal buzz ranking by more than 1%.

Cain’s Facebook Following Increases Dramatically:Consistent with Cain’s increase in volume buzz ranking, his Facebook following increased by almost 11%, bringing him to more than 346,000 Facebook followers in total. Despite the dramatic increase, Cain’s Facebook following is still behind other GOP rivals Mitt Romney (1,166,627), Ron Paul (574,464) and Michele Bachman (459,289).

Cain’s Cluster Words Shift to Uncertainty:

Compared to last week, when the most popular words and phrases used to describe Herman Cain online were “9-9-9?, “Taxes”, “Plan” and “Like”, this week’s cluster word analysis for Cain is dominated by uncertainty, with words such as “Allegations”, “Speculation” and “Must win debate” dominating his most popular words and phrases.

Romney and Santorum Surge in Email Traffic:

While all other GOP candidates experienced a drop in the total % of site visits driven by email, Romney and Santorum experienced a significant increase on this online channel. The % of total site visits driven by email increased by nearly 46% for Romney and an incredible 102% for Santorum.

Perry Losing Valuable Ground in Digital Race:

Rick Perry continued to experience a drop in his digital ranking over the past week, with his tonal buzz ranking decreasing by 2%, dropping to 67% positive. Over the month alone, Perry’s tonal ranking has dropped by 14%, going from the best-buzzed GOP candidate as of October 10th at 81% positive to the worst-buzzed GOP candidate as of today at 67% positive.

Obama Remains King of Social Media:While the GOP candidates are slugging it out for precious social media space, President Obama remains the standard when it comes to his online presence. Obama’s Facebook following is more than 800% higher than the highest GOP candidate (Mitt Romney), and his Twitter following is more than 800% stronger than that of Newt Gingrich, who has the highest Twitter following of all GOP candidatesFor the week ending November 6, 2011 the presidential election online buzz and traffic analytics focuses primarily on the GOP contenders battling it out for the republican nomination. Zeta Interactive is tracking statistics and analytics from several sources each week to compile a performance snapshot of the candidates’ online digital performance. Full analytical data is available upon request, while highlights of the weekly information are below taking the current news cycle context into account:

Cain’s Volume Buzz Soars, Tonal Buzz Drops:Amidst controversy and allegations of impropriety, Herman Cain was the center of the buzz over the past week. His volume buzz soared by 2%, bringing him to 23% of the overall volume buzz share surrounding all GOP candidates, 9% higher than that of Mitt Romney, whose volume buzz share dropped to 14%. Meanwhile, Cain’s tonal buzz ranking dropped significantly, moving from 74% positive to 69% positive, and placing him 4% behind Romney in the tonal category.

Overall Tonal Buzz Drops for GOP Candidates:The past week was an extremely low tonal buzz week for the GOP candidates, with 5 out of 7 candidates experiencing either a negative drop in buzz or no change in their buzz ranking, and not one candidate improving their tonal buzz ranking by more than 1%.

Cain’s Facebook Following Increases Dramatically:Consistent with Cain’s increase in volume buzz ranking, his Facebook following increased by almost 11%, bringing him to more than 346,000 Facebook followers in total. Despite the dramatic increase, Cain’s Facebook following is still behind other GOP rivals Mitt Romney (1,166,627), Ron Paul (574,464) and Michele Bachman (459,289).

Cain’s Cluster Words Shift to Uncertainty:

Compared to last week, when the most popular words and phrases used to describe Herman Cain online were “9-9-9?, “Taxes”, “Plan” and “Like”, this week’s cluster word analysis for Cain is dominated by uncertainty, with words such as “Allegations”, “Speculation” and “Must win debate” dominating his most popular words and phrases.

Romney and Santorum Surge in Email Traffic:

While all other GOP candidates experienced a drop in the total % of site visits driven by email, Romney and Santorum experienced a significant increase on this online channel. The % of total site visits driven by email increased by nearly 46% for Romney and an incredible 102% for Santorum.

Perry Losing Valuable Ground in Digital Race:

Rick Perry continued to experience a drop in his digital ranking over the past week, with his tonal buzz ranking decreasing by 2%, dropping to 67% positive. Over the month alone, Perry’s tonal ranking has dropped by 14%, going from the best-buzzed GOP candidate as of October 10th at 81% positive to the worst-buzzed GOP candidate as of today at 67% positive.

Obama Remains King of Social Media:While the GOP candidates are slugging it out for precious social media space, President Obama remains the standard when it comes to his online presence. Obama’s Facebook following is more than 800% higher than the highest GOP candidate (Mitt Romney), and his Twitter following is more than 800% stronger than that of Newt Gingrich, who has the highest Twitter following of all GOP candidatesFor the week ending November 6, 2011 the presidential election online buzz and traffic analytics focuses primarily on the GOP contenders battling it out for the republican nomination. Zeta Interactive is tracking statistics and analytics from several sources each week to compile a performance snapshot of the candidates’ online digital performance. Full analytical data is available upon request, while highlights of the weekly information are below taking the current news cycle context into account:

Cain’s Volume Buzz Soars, Tonal Buzz Drops:Amidst controversy and allegations of impropriety, Herman Cain was the center of the buzz over the past week. His volume buzz soared by 2%, bringing him to 23% of the overall volume buzz share surrounding all GOP candidates, 9% higher than that of Mitt Romney, whose volume buzz share dropped to 14%. Meanwhile, Cain’s tonal buzz ranking dropped significantly, moving from 74% positive to 69% positive, and placing him 4% behind Romney in the tonal category.

Overall Tonal Buzz Drops for GOP Candidates:The past week was an extremely low tonal buzz week for the GOP candidates, with 5 out of 7 candidates experiencing either a negative drop in buzz or no change in their buzz ranking, and not one candidate improving their tonal buzz ranking by more than 1%.

Cain’s Facebook Following Increases Dramatically:Consistent with Cain’s increase in volume buzz ranking, his Facebook following increased by almost 11%, bringing him to more than 346,000 Facebook followers in total. Despite the dramatic increase, Cain’s Facebook following is still behind other GOP rivals Mitt Romney (1,166,627), Ron Paul (574,464) and Michele Bachman (459,289).

Cain’s Cluster Words Shift to Uncertainty:

Compared to last week, when the most popular words and phrases used to describe Herman Cain online were “9-9-9?, “Taxes”, “Plan” and “Like”, this week’s cluster word analysis for Cain is dominated by uncertainty, with words such as “Allegations”, “Speculation” and “Must win debate” dominating his most popular words and phrases.

Romney and Santorum Surge in Email Traffic:

While all other GOP candidates experienced a drop in the total % of site visits driven by email, Romney and Santorum experienced a significant increase on this online channel. The % of total site visits driven by email increased by nearly 46% for Romney and an incredible 102% for Santorum.

Perry Losing Valuable Ground in Digital Race:

Rick Perry continued to experience a drop in his digital ranking over the past week, with his tonal buzz ranking decreasing by 2%, dropping to 67% positive. Over the month alone, Perry’s tonal ranking has dropped by 14%, going from the best-buzzed GOP candidate as of October 10th at 81% positive to the worst-buzzed GOP candidate as of today at 67% positive.

Obama Remains King of Social Media:While the GOP candidates are slugging it out for precious social media space, President Obama remains the standard when it comes to his online presence. Obama’s Facebook following is more than 800% higher than the highest GOP candidate (Mitt Romney), and his Twitter following is more than 800% stronger than that of Newt Gingrich, who has the highest Twitter following of all GOP candidatesFor the week ending November 6, 2011 the presidential election online buzz and traffic analytics focuses primarily on the GOP contenders battling it out for the republican nomination. Zeta Interactive is tracking statistics and analytics from several sources each week to compile a performance snapshot of the candidates’ online digital performance. Full analytical data is available upon request, while highlights of the weekly information are below taking the current news cycle context into account:

Cain’s Volume Buzz Soars, Tonal Buzz Drops:Amidst controversy and allegations of impropriety, Herman Cain was the center of the buzz over the past week. His volume buzz soared by 2%, bringing him to 23% of the overall volume buzz share surrounding all GOP candidates, 9% higher than that of Mitt Romney, whose volume buzz share dropped to 14%. Meanwhile, Cain’s tonal buzz ranking dropped significantly, moving from 74% positive to 69% positive, and placing him 4% behind Romney in the tonal category.

Overall Tonal Buzz Drops for GOP Candidates:The past week was an extremely low tonal buzz week for the GOP candidates, with 5 out of 7 candidates experiencing either a negative drop in buzz or no change in their buzz ranking, and not one candidate improving their tonal buzz ranking by more than 1%.

Cain’s Facebook Following Increases Dramatically:Consistent with Cain’s increase in volume buzz ranking, his Facebook following increased by almost 11%, bringing him to more than 346,000 Facebook followers in total. Despite the dramatic increase, Cain’s Facebook following is still behind other GOP rivals Mitt Romney (1,166,627), Ron Paul (574,464) and Michele Bachman (459,289).

Cain’s Cluster Words Shift to Uncertainty:

Compared to last week, when the most popular words and phrases used to describe Herman Cain online were “9-9-9?, “Taxes”, “Plan” and “Like”, this week’s cluster word analysis for Cain is dominated by uncertainty, with words such as “Allegations”, “Speculation” and “Must win debate” dominating his most popular words and phrases.

Romney and Santorum Surge in Email Traffic:

While all other GOP candidates experienced a drop in the total % of site visits driven by email, Romney and Santorum experienced a significant increase on this online channel. The % of total site visits driven by email increased by nearly 46% for Romney and an incredible 102% for Santorum.

Perry Losing Valuable Ground in Digital Race:

Rick Perry continued to experience a drop in his digital ranking over the past week, with his tonal buzz ranking decreasing by 2%, dropping to 67% positive. Over the month alone, Perry’s tonal ranking has dropped by 14%, going from the best-buzzed GOP candidate as of October 10th at 81% positive to the worst-buzzed GOP candidate as of today at 67% positive.

Obama Remains King of Social Media:While the GOP candidates are slugging it out for precious social media space, President Obama remains the standard when it comes to his online presence. Obama’s Facebook following is more than 800% higher than the highest GOP candidate (Mitt Romney), and his Twitter following is more than 800% stronger than that of Newt Gingrich, who has the highest Twitter following of all GOP candidates of agenda software and Microsoft project 2010

 

ALI JUTT

4:43 PM ET

March 4, 2012

good

This is a national call to action to help ensure Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution is upheld by stopping Obama from getting back in the White House for another 4 un-Constitutional years. The Obama State Ballot Challenge 2012 project was created to help organize and report on the Herculean effort to keep Obama off the Presidential election ballot in 2012 because he does not meet the Constitutional standard of Natural Born Citizen that was established by Minor v. Happersett, and because of his massive fraud crimes committed before and during his tenure in the White House.

We need your help now! Challenges can be filed in the primary season. You can file your own complaint with your state without hiring a attorney and without any cost. We are working on providing a generic example complaint that you can use for reference. Please go to the Contact page and email the Director Pamela Barnett if you can file a complaint in your state. See if we have election law on your state by clicking on your state page above. See the Obama State Ballot Challenge 2012 page of this website for more details.

The first ballot challenge is ongoing in New Hampshire and citizens have additionally filed ballot challenges in Georgia, Hawaii, Tennessee, Arizona, and Alabama, and many more are in the works. We need to challenge Obama in all 50 states many times. More news to come soon on new ballot challenges and a new partnership that could provide legal resources to citizen voters filing complaints. Join our campaign to stop Obama in 2012 by filing a ballot complaint or volunteering to help with advertising our effort to recruit more people to file complaints.

We do this because we are a nation of laws, and the political ruling class has failed to uphold the law regarding Obama's usurpation. We do it for God, country, and family.... and for justice. We will also fight against any non Natural Born Republican that appears on the Presidential ballot. This is not a political initiative, it is about respecting the Constitution.

We all lose if we continue to be a nation of men and not of laws. This enables corruption in Congress, the White House and the Courts. As it stands now, they are all operating above the law. This state ballot initiative brings the power back to the states to ensure their citizens are voting for only qualified candidates.

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MAXIMB

12:49 PM ET

March 19, 2012

U.S. Foreign policy decisions

U.S. Foreign policy decisions of the post-Cold War era were in some cases identical to the blindness and the failure of the Foreign policy decisions during the Cold War. One only has to look at the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq to see this. The reason for this is twofold: first, Smithsonianism (after former Secretary of State Henry Stimson) and its idea of "collective security;" second, the U.S. saving mission to the world, rekindled by former President Woodrow Wilson, and extended through Presidents Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson into a global "New Dealism.".

"Is rio orange war always forfait sans engagement inevitable ?"
MaximB

 

MAXIMB

8:10 AM ET

March 22, 2012

Only a democratic candidate

Only a democratic candidate or Ron Paul. Historically our interventions, whether requested or like Iraq arbitrary, have not worked out well. I'm sure Iraqi's are trying to decide who was worse Saddam or the US. We have a great need to devote our money and attention to our own country right now..

"Is rio orange war always forfait b and you inevitable ?"
MaximB

 

MAXIMB

9:59 PM ET

March 22, 2012

Joe the Plumber should be

Joe the Plumber should be voted into office because he is Joe, and Joe is my bro. Joe knows a thing or two about foreign affairs and is an experienced man..

"Is rio orange war always sms illimite inevitable ?"
MaximB

 

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