America Votes 2012: Shall Obama Win?

Though 72 percent of the Republicans and GOP-leaning independents do not want Sarah Palin to run in 2012 Presidential Election, a recent poll shows that she could be as competitive as President Obama as any of the top tier GOP candidates. The McClatchy-Marist poll showed the former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee trailing the president by just 5 points - with Obama leading 49-44 percent.

Meanwhile in the same poll, 39 percent of the registered voters say, they will vote against "the Democratic President", 36 percent plans to vote for Obama while 15 percent did not make their mind yet. This is the highest percent of voters who plan to vote against Obama since November 2010, when 48 percent of respondents said they did not plan to support the President.

Although the numbers don't look good for the President, they don't look great for any Republican candidate either.

"On the one hand, President Obama's re-election numbers are very low. On the other hand, no GOP potential opponent has stepped up to the plate and demonstrated sufficient electoral power to beat him," says Dr. Lee Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

In an Obama/Romney race, the president would get 46 percent and Romney 44 percent, with 10 percent undecided. Obama would get 49 percent of the vote if he ran against Sarah Palin [who, although she still hasn't decided whether she is running, told a TV channel that she is still "one of those still considers the time factor" with regards to her candidacy]. The former Governor of Alaska would get 44 percent, and 10 percent would be unsure.

If Rick Perry ran against the President today, he could expect 41 percent of the vote to the President's 50 percent. And Michelle Bachman would get 40 percent, the President would get 53 percent, and seven percent would be undecided.

In a Republican primary, Rick Perry has the lead among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. The most important quality in a candidate to Republicans and Republican-leaning independents is somebody who "shares [the voter's] values," followed by somebody with the experience to govern.

President Obama is playing diplomat by day and "warrior" by night during his time in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Obama's new, more partisan self was on full display at a party fund-raiser Tuesday evening, where he defended his call for wealthy Americans to "pay their fair share" for the cause of deficit reduction. And in the process, he had a new answer to Republicans who are uniformly accusing him of waging "class warfare."

"You're already hearing the Republicans in Congress dusting off the old talking points. You can write their press releases - 'class warfare,' they say," Obama said. "You know what, if asking a billionaire to pay the same rate as a plumber or a teacher makes me a warrior for the middle class, I wear that charge as a badge of honor."

President Obama remarkably made a very disturbing statement on Wednesday by endorsing the so-called statehood of the Palestinians, when he restated his belief that the Palestinians deserve their own state but said a vote at the United Nations is not the way to achieve it.

"Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations - if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now," said Obama, who at the same forum a year ago called for an independent Palestine.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to bring his statehood push before the U.N. Security Council. The U.S. plans to veto the measure but would rather not get to that point, as the veto could further hurt U.S. standing in the Middle East. Still, Abbas could take the proposal straight to the General Assembly, where the Palestinians are seen as having the support to win what amounts to a symbolic recognition of statehood and slightly elevated status within the United Nations.

In another bid French President Nicolas Sarkozy broke sharply with the efforts of the Obama administration and some European nations to quash the efforts by the Palestinians for recognition at the United Nations, instead calling for enhancing their status in the General Assembly to that of an observer state.

The French leader, speaking from the famous green marble podium of the General Assembly barely an hour after President Obama, also said it was time to change the formula in trying to negotiate an Arab-Israeli peace, taking an indirect swipe at the United States by saying the efforts so far were a complete failure.

Recognition as an observer state would not mean much here except for some procedural changes, but it would allow the Palestinians to join subsidiary bodies and treaties of the United Nations.

Most Israeli concern has focused on the possibility that making the Palestinians an observer state could enhance their ability to join the International Criminal Court and pursue Israeli leaders through "lawfare."

In choosing to go to the Security Council to seek full membership, Mahmoud Abbas chose a more difficult path but one that could get lost in the thicket of United Nations bureaucracy for months before the United States used its threatened veto. There is even a question if the Palestinians can muster the needed 9 votes. But the United States has no veto over a General Assembly resolution, and the Palestinians enjoy overwhelming support there.

Several countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Afro-Arab nations and Turkey are already showing "over-whelming" interest in voting in favor of Palestinian statehood. Mahmoud Abbas is categorically getting "inspirations" and "encouragements" from the Iranian government in moving ahead with the voting. This certainly is a matter of grave concern for everyone, who does not like to see the emergence of a terrorist-administrated land like Palestine to become more prominent in the United Nations.

In addition to his comments about Palestinian statehood, President Obama hailed what he called a "time of extraordinary transformation," as he touted the Arab Spring gains of protesters across the Middle East.

He particularly highlighted the NATO-led mission in Libya to aid rebels fighting against Muammar Qaddafi. "This is how the international community is supposed to work," Obama said. He said uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, as well as the resolution to an election dispute in Cote d'Ivoire, are signs of a changing world.

"This has been a remarkable year," Obama said. "Something's happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way they will be ... Dictators are on notice."

He said the international community will still "have to respond to the calls for change" elsewhere in the region, pointing to the repressive behavior of regimes in Syria and Iran, among others.

Commenting to United States' policy on ousting dictators from other nations in the world, through helping the people in waging 'Arab Sprint' like revolutions, US think tanks here said, "There are few more nations at the list of ouster. Washington definitely wants to see further spread of democracy in other nations in the world. We are expecting fall of autocratic regime in Syria soon, where after, the wind will change direction towards the Korean Peninsula. There should be an end to the dictatorial rule in the Korean Peninsula for the good of the people of that region as well for the world, as dictatorial regime with weapons of mass destruction as well as with acute hunger and years-old famine would only cause further sufferings to the people."

The think tanks indicated further boost of US military cooperation to South Korea and enhancement of Seoul's military and defense capabilities to protect the land from any future attack from the hostile neighbors. They said, President Obama has a number of agendas on his desk to implement prior to the 2012 Presidential election in United States. After the death of Osama Bin Laden and visible down-sizing of Al Qaeda, Obama certainly attained enhanced support and appreciations at home. His popularity has increased with the series of successes in the Arab Spring, which caused in downfall of a number of autocratic regimes. Now, certainly President Obama is determined to see an end to current tension in the Korean Peninsula by establishing democracy in that part of the world. In a question if China would react to such "pro-democracy" drives of Obama administration, US think tanks said, China though is a governed by Communist rulers, it already has turned into one of the best friends of United States in the past few years. They said Beijing may not be that much inclined in getting it involved into issues related to Korean Peninsula. They said, "Korean Peninsula is now clearly divided in pro-Washington and pro-Moscow axis. So, it is now time of test to prove, which side of the Koreans gets the upper hand."

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America Votes 2012: Shall Obama Win?

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