Mitt Romney Is Sinking In Three More Swing States

Mitt Romney

Another day, another round of disappointing polling numbers for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The latest survey, from NBC/WSJ, shows Romney trailing President Barack Obama in Colorado, Iowa, and Wisconsin — three swing states that both candidates are putting energy and resources into this election cycle.

The polls show that Obama is leading Romney by five points with likely voters in Colorado and Wisconsin, 50 percent to 45 percent. In Iowa, the president has expanded his lead by eight points, 50 percent to 42 percent.

Obama also edges out Romney among Independent voters in all three states; according to NBC, he's up by one point with Independents in Wisconsin, 10 points in Colorado, and 11 points in Iowa. 

A deeper look into the results reveals more worrisome signs for Romney. In all three states, likely voters said they view Romney in a negative light, while Obama's favorability ratings are at or above the 50 percent threshold.

The President has also gained ground on Romney on the question of which candidate would better handle the economy: In Colorado, Obama leads on the issue 48 percent to 46 percent, and in Iowa, he is up 47 percent to 43 percent. Romney edges out Obama by one point in Wisconsin, 46 percent to 45 percent

NBC also points out that Obama is still struggling with male voters, but leads Romney by double-digits among women. This gender gap poses potential problems for both candidates, but could be especially troublesome for Romney in Colorado, where elections are often decided by a small group of female independent voters. 

And the numbers aren't all good for Obama. Critically, his job approval ratings — 47 percent in Colorado, 48 percent in Wisconsin, and 49 percent in Iowa — are all below the critical 50 percent threshold considered necessary for re-election. 

The three NBC/WSJ surveys — taken after the conventions and the crisis in the Middle East but before the leaked video controversy — mirror a national trend upward for Obama in the wake of the Democratic National Convention. 

According to NBC, the polls were conducted of 971 likely voters in Colorado (which has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points), 898 likely voters in Iowa (plus-minus 3.3 percentage points) and 968 likely voters in Wisconsin (plus-minus 3.2 percentage points).

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8 Retailers With Really Smart Homepages

reebok website

Retail websites have one big glaring goal: get people to buy things.

How are they supposed to do that?

There are four essential elements of a homepage that every retail website has to do well, explains customer experience optimization firm Maxymiser:

  • The lead, attention-grabbing image has to be engaging and compelling
  • Make sure customers know about the big sales immediately
  • Navigation that is simple, easy, and effective
  • Customers who already know what they want need to be able to search and find it quickly

Maxymiser compiled a list of eight websites that are doing things right on their homepage right now, and they described why the designs work.

Lowe's (lowes.com): The site uses hero imagery ? something that pops and is out of the ordinary ? and product imagery in new and different ways to engage customers.

Lacoste (shop.lacoste.com): Strong, compelling calls-to-action encourage specific consumer behaviors.

Kohl's (kohls.com): Product-focused, but scroll-down approach encourages customers to experience a range of products right from the start.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/mnSJLTm3D_I/retail-homepages-websites-2012-9

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Google's Motorola Has Become Delusional

Despite Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) anti-litigation rhetoric in recent times, its Motorola subsidiary is pulling out all the stops in its patent war with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) .

Last month, Motorola filed a fresh complaint with the International Trade Commission, claiming that numerous Apple products and features infringe on its patents. Its IP includes seven patents covering everything from location reminders to email notifications to phone and video players. Motorola is seeking an import ban for Apple's products, most of which are made in Asia. Earlier this week, the ITC voted to begin an investigation based on the complaint.

Among the accused features is Apple's iMessage service, a unified messaging service that spans all of its devices and allows users to send messages for free to other Apple users. Motorola wants all Apple devices that use iMessage banned from import -- i.e., all Apple devices. The iPhone 5 wasn't included in the complaint, primarily because it wasn't announced at the time, but you can expect Motorola to add it to the mix shortly.

Somehow, Motorola absurdly doesn't believe that domestic consumers would really notice if Apple's products were banned: "With so many participants in the highly competitive Wireless communication, portable music, and computer market, it is unlikely that consumers would experience much of an impact if the requested exclusion orders were obtained." That sounds rather delusional to me.

Even though Apple is similarly seeking bans on Samsung devices after its legal victory, it's not like the iPhone maker ever said no one would ever notice.

Meanwhile, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT  ) continues to wrangle with Motorola, earning a German victory banning its Android devices related to a file-storage system patent, similar to the one that Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM  ) just licensed. In August, Microsoft called out Google for waging war via its subsidiary, saying it continues to refuse its standards-essential patents as it's required to.

If Motorola is even able to put a dent in Apple's momentum, that $12.5 billion that Google spent may start to pay off.

The introduction of the iPhone 5 is an event Apple investors have been looking forward to for months. The stakes are high and the opportunity is huge, so to help investors understand this epic Apple event, we've just released an exclusive update dedicated to the iPhone 5 launch. By picking up a copy of our premium research report on Apple, you'll learn everything you need to know about the launch, and receive ongoing guidance as key news hits. Claim your copy today by clicking here now.

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This Beer Promotion Isn?t A Good Deal, But At Least It?s Honest

literalRegular photo contributor Ashi sent us this photo, seen in San Diego. It's a thing of beauty: truth in advertising and the least fuzzy math we've ever seen. Or is it the most fuzzy math, because it's calling your attention to something that isn't a special price at all? This is too much to think [...]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/09/this-beer-promotion-isnt-a-good-deal-but-at-least-its-honest.html

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This Beer Promotion Isn?t A Good Deal, But At Least It?s Honest

literalRegular photo contributor Ashi sent us this photo, seen in San Diego. It's a thing of beauty: truth in advertising and the least fuzzy math we've ever seen. Or is it the most fuzzy math, because it's calling your attention to something that isn't a special price at all? This is too much to think [...]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/09/this-beer-promotion-isnt-a-good-deal-but-at-least-its-honest.html

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Angela Merkel Remains A Mystery

Angela Merkel glass

It was, Angela Merkel reflects, the most galling mistake of her childhood. Not a lie or a betrayal, some malicious gossip or a fistfight but the moment in which the young girl from East Germany crawled into the resinous hollow of a tree wearing a new tracksuit sent to her from the West.

The anecdote speaks volumes about a dutiful, conscientious, slightly awkward woman who, though pre-eminent in Germany for seven years, is still a relative enigma to her compatriots. It was a response to an array of questions put to her by Süddeutsche magazine as part of a broader inquiry: "Who is this person who is governing our country?"

The answer: a woman who regrets not being able to go shopping without being recognised; who would most like to have supper with Vicente del Bosque, the manager of the Spanish football team; who powers down through hiking, cooking or laughing and whose biggest fear is, no, not the collapse of the euro, but getting caught unprotected in a thunderstorm.

A man who knows Merkel better than most and admits to being referred to as her "little pet" is David McAllister, 41, an up-and-coming member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and prime minister of Lower Saxony who has been tipped as a future chancellor (and also happens to be half Scottish). He puts her success down to her commonality. "There's no ballyhoo with her," he says. "She's very direct and down to earth. What Germans love is they see her on Friday in Brussels with Hollande, Obama, Cameron, whoever, and then they see in their newspaper the next day how directly after that she went shopping for her supper in the supermarket. The photograph of that wasn't fixed. Everyone knows that that's the way she is."

He also credits her with modernising the CDU, a party whose members – typically Catholic, male, western, family-oriented – she has led as a Lutheran, eastern, childless woman. "I think there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who now vote for the CDU who wouldn't have done before her," McAllister added. He said that while well aware that Germans tend to vote for a party rather than a personality, the CDU is desperately trying to persuade people "if you want Angela Merkel you've got to vote for the CDU," in recognition of how strong the Merkel factor is.

Others are less charitable. The academic and former adviser to Helmut Kohl Gertrud Höhler, describes her as furtive, dangerous and a threat to Europe in her new book, The Godmother: How Angela Merkel Is Reshaping Germany, in which she coins the phrase "System M" to describe Merkel's modus operandi. "For years, the press has concentrated on the question as to whether she governs well, or badly, or perhaps not at all," said Höhler. "In reality, Merkel has developed an autocratic system," she said, and has "already installed an autocratic regime".

She accuses Merkel of ruining the euro and undermining the political careers of many leading men in the CDU. She even mentions her in the same breath as German dictators of the last century and goes so far as to suggest her strict Lutheran pastor father's decision to bring her up in the authoritarian confines of the communist East, where Merkel moved with her family when she was just weeks old, was an extension of his deep desire to control her. But Höhler's book cuts against the grain of popular opinion, which still strongly favours Merkel. According to the latest poll her popularity rating is 61%, making her Germany's most popular politician.

Wolfgang Nowak, director of Deutsche Bank's Alfred Herrhausen Society and a former adviser to the SPD chancellor Gerhard Schröder said the reason many people, including Höhler, were suspicious of Merkel was precisely because she kept so much to herself. "The reason there's a System M is because it's the first time in German politics that a chancellor's office sticks so tightly together so that nothing is leaked. Merkel talks to just a very small, tight, trusted circle and those who are not in that circle are often envious or offended," he said.

"There's also the theory," said Constanze Stelzenmüller of the German Marshall Fund "that Merkel is the kind of person that decides the more you say and the more you write, the more these things can be held against you and the less said the better, the more done the better. I'd guess her motto was: 'Let's get more done' and that strikes me as entirely sensible. Particularly in a media age, that's a sign of strength."

Nowak added it is indeed true, as Hohler writes, that many men who once held big positions in the party are now gone, "but not because Merkel killed them off, rather, they were simply unmasked for what they were – CDU career politicians, puppets or fraudsters".

Gunnar Beck, a reader in law from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, is rather more sceptical, saying that Merkel is only held in such high regard because those around her don't make the grade. He is critical of her diplomatic skills, as well as her judgment of character. "By comparison to a rather unfortunate line of politicians who have been exposed for irregularities of various kinds, (including the former president and former defence minister) she appears to be the paragon of virtue and that's noticed by the electorate, albeit in the context of a low general standard. She's entirely above criticism in her personal life and work ethic, but you've got to put it into perspective. While she's a very good domestic political operator she is helpless abroad and she's also a spectacularly bad judge of character," he says, citing her promotion of many who have since fallen (including the president, defence minister and Nicolas Sarkozy) and others who have not, including the European Central Bank's president, Mario Draghi, and Jorg Asmussen, an executive board member of the ECB. Beck is also wary of the idea that Merkel has a sophisticated plan. "She is a superbly shrewd party and domestic politician but has been repeatedly outmanoeuvred by Draghi, Monti, Hollande and others. There is no sign that she has a masterplan regarding the euro."

Among those critical of Merkel's lack of vision is Hans Kundnani, a Germany analyst and editorial director at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "What's needed now is someone who can talk up the benefits of the single currency, of Germany's role in the euro narrative, including the fact that it bears responsibility for this flawed currency, rather than saying: 'we're the victims of it,'" he said. "She's not particularly visionary or bold."

Gerd Languth, a political analyst and Merkel biographer, said this was precisely what Germans liked about her. "She is extremely pragmatic, and non-ideological, like most Germans are." She had, he said, been strengthened by the knowledge that despite criticism from outside Germany over her euro policies, the support for her within was stronger than ever. "She notices that the more she's attacked from outside, the more the solidarity towards her within Germany grows," he said. "Germans don't know what she wants, but the trust in her is unshakeable, and if the ship cants, she's the one they want to be at the helm."

While there is at this stage, a year before a general election, quite a degree of expectation that Merkel will be re-elected, much is still at stake, not least, if the German economy takes a dive or the euro plunges into more misery, which could see the tide of popular opinion turning against her. Despite the growing disgruntlement towards her among Christian Democrats, Languth said he found it hard "to imagine a CDU governing without Merkel if they're standing high in the polls".

What he is sure about though is that if Merkel were not re-elected "she'd disappear from politics altogether". Asked what he thought she would do, he said that unlike her predecessor and close fiend of Putin, Gerhard Schröder, "she would not go to work for Gazprom".

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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City Attorney Using That Song Everyone Knows To Call Attention To Payday Loan Settlement

callmewhatnowIf there's some possible way you've avoided hearing that pop song where the girl is like hey perhaps you should ring me on the telephone (paraphrasing so as not to unintentionally force you to get it in your head), then we applaud you on your success. But because it seems most of the country, if [...]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/09/city-attorney-using-that-song-everyone-knows-to-call-attention-to-payday-loan-settlement.html

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