* Well that week went by quick. Can’t believe it’s Friday already. I’ll probably post TV ads and time-sensitive updates on the blog this weekend, but I am gonna close comments unless something huge happens. Meanwhile, check Illinoize for updates.
Award-winning writer and editor with more than three decades of experience in competitive Chicago-area market. Extensive background in newspaper reporting, editing and administration… Qualified to handle public relations and corporate communications assignments. Also experienced in catalog and textbook publishing industries.
Get over there and buy an ad. It’s the place to be seen.
* The world as we know it appears to be coming to an end, so let’s all GET UP AND DANCE…
* 3:31 pm - Democrat Debbie Halvorson’s congressional campaign has just released a new poll, which shows her leading Republican Martin Ozinga by 19 points. I’ve asked the Ozinga campaign to provide any recent numbers that they might have. From the executive summary…
* Halvorson leads Ozinga by a 48% to 29% margin, with Green Party candidate Jason Wallace at 5%. Halvorson has built a sizeable 19-point lead, but still needs a few points of expansion in order to win.
* Halvorson more than doubled her lead since mid-September when she led by 8 points (43% Halvorson / 35% Ozinga). Although Ozinga has made substantial investments in cable television and mail, Halvorson’s message about strengthening the middle class and fixing the national healthcare crisis has moved the race in her favor.
* The candidates have similar name identification (63% Halvorson / 59% Ozinga), but Ozinga has a high unfavorable rating that makes it difficult for him to expand his support. More voters are unfavorable towards Ozinga than favorable (27% favorable / 32% unfavorable). Ozinga’s favorable rating is 13 points lower than Halvorson’s and his unfavorable rating is 10 points higher than Halvorson’s (40% favorable / 22% unfavorable).
* Since September, Democrats have gone from a small deficit on the generic ballot (38% Democrat / 40% Republican) to a small advantage (38% Democrat / 36% Republican). Barack Obama has taken a 2-point lead (43% Obama / 41% McCain) after trailing by 5 points in mid-September.
* Details…
Anzalone Liszt Research conducted n=400 live telephone interviews with likely 2008 general election voters in Illinois CD-11. Interviews were conducted between October 10-13, 2008. Respondents were selected at random with interviews apportioned geographically based on expected voter turnout. Expected margin of sampling error is ±4.9% at a 95% confidence level.
…Adding… From the Ozinga campaign…
“So Debbie Halvorson and three liberal special-interest groups spend over $2 million in false and personal smear ads against Marty Ozinga, and she’s still under 50%? Halvorson is clearly vulnerable to a late Ozinga surge once her shameful record of rubber-stamping Blagojevich’s failed agenda sinks in with voters in these final weeks.”
…Adding a thought… Since there are three candidates in the race, Halvorson may not need to hit 50 percent.
Democrat Debbie Halvorson holds a slight lead in fundraising in the race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller in Congress.
Halvorson, a Democrat from Crete, reported raising $580,000 between July and October, compared to Republican Martin Ozinga’s $563,000. Green Party candidate Jason Wallace of Normal raised $750. […]
“We think it’s a neck-and-neck race,” Ozinga campaign manager Andy Sere said.
According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Halvorson raised $580,000 between July and Oct. 1, while spending more than $1.2 million.
Halvorson had $274,545 in the bank.
* 4:26 pm - Watch Congresscritter Judy Biggert completely lose her train of thought during a debate yesterday on Chicago Tonight. It ain’t pretty…
She didn’t do too well earlier in the debate, either, appearing, without lots of success, to access talking points in her mind to fit the question…
It’s also notable that later in the event, McCain said the following:
“I don’t want it getting out of this room, but my opponent is an impressive fellow in many ways. Political opponents can have a little trouble seeing the best in each other. But I’ve had a few glimpses of this man at his best and I admire his great skill, energy and determination. It’s not for nothing, but he’s inspired many folks in his own party and beyond. Senator Obama talks about making history and he’s made quite a bit of it already. There was a time when the mere invitation of an African-American citizen to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage and an insult. Today is a world away from the cruelty and prideful bigotry of that time - and good riddance. I can’t wish my opponent luck, but I do wish him well.”
* Obama…
“There are very few of us who have served this country with the same dedication and honor and distinction as Senator McCain, and I’m glad to be sharing the stage with him tonight.”
*** BREAKING NEWS *** The Chicago Tribune endorses Obama…
This endorsement makes some history for the Chicago Tribune. This is the first time the newspaper has endorsed the Democratic Party’s nominee for president.
The Tribune in its earliest days took up the abolition of slavery and linked itself to a powerful force for that cause–the Republican Party. The Tribune’s first great leader, Joseph Medill, was a founder of the GOP. The editorial page has been a proponent of conservative principles. It believes that government has to serve people honestly and efficiently.
With that in mind, in 1872 we endorsed Horace Greeley, who ran as an independent against the corrupt administration of Republican President Ulysses S. Grant. (Greeley was later endorsed by the Democrats.) In 1912 we endorsed Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as the Progressive Party candidate against Republican President William Howard Taft.
The Tribune’s decisions then were driven by outrage at inept and corrupt business and political leaders.
We see parallels today. […]
When Obama said at the 2004 Democratic Convention that we weren’t a nation of red states and blue states, he spoke of union the way Abraham Lincoln did.
It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation’s most powerful office, he will prove it wasn’t so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama’s name to Lincoln’s in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.
There was a 90-minute discussion of the editorial board, which included Tribune publisher Tony Hunter and Tribune editor Gerould Kern. There were passionate, but respectful arguments on both sides. Everyone spoke. There was no shouting. What emerged was a clear consensus of the board in favor of Obama. Hunter, Kern and editorial page editor Bruce Dold agreed on that final decision. Dold wrote the endorsement.
* It’s Friday, so let’s change the subject a bit. Our setup is from Warren Buffett…
A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.
* The Question: What’s your current investment strategy? Explain.
* First things first. If you’re gonna attack a congressman for his military/war voting record, you should probably use a local veteran instead of somebody from Peoria. Then, make sure you vet the vet…
North Shore Democratic congressional candidate Dan Seals’ campaign on Tuesday defended using an Iraq War veteran with ties to the 9/11 conspiracy movement in a new TV ad attacking Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk for supporting the war.
Seals spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith said she didn’t “really see what is so controversial” about using Caleb Davis in the ad. Davis, 25, is a Peoria native who spent five months in Iraq as an Army diver and got an honorable discharge in 2004.
Last June, the Peoria Journal Star reported that Davis wore a black T-shirt proclaiming “Investigate 9/ 11@911truth.org” while sitting at a table at a Peoria library where books, fliers and DVDs supporting conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks were on display. The organization argues the government’s version of the terrorist attacks is fraudulent and offers a “Top 40 Reasons to Doubt the Official Story” and an “Official Coverup Guide.”
Kirk, who was in the Pentagon when the airplane crashed into it Sept. 11, 2001, called on Seals to stop airing the ad.
In case you missed it before, the Seals ad is here.
* Kirk sponsored a press conference yesterday attended by several veterans who blasted Seals and his ad…
Local veterans for Kirk countered with 23-year-old Joe Cook of Wauconda, an Army vet who lost a portion of his left leg to a roadside bomb while on patrol. Cook said he was outraged when he saw the ad. He supported Davis’ right to an opinion, but said the statement that Kirk doesn’t support veterans is false.
“When I got injured, Mark Kirk was one of the first people to call my household and asked if there was anything he could do,” he said. “I know enough to know that what he did at the North Chicago VA is something special.
ABC7 could not reach Caleb Davis for comment. He has issued a statement through the Seals campaign saying he believes the 911 attacks were committed by Al Qaeda terrorists, in effect denying that he is a conspiracy theorist.
But why go with an out-of-district spokesperson who has such an iffy past?
It just doesn’t make sense.
Seals says he will not pull the ad. Kirk says his campaign will answer with an ad blitz during the last weeks before the election.
Now it looks like Seals, a Wilmette Democrat has a bit of a cash squeeze for such a tight contest. He reports having had $240,479 on hand on Sept. 30. He raised $660,936 in the last three months – just shy of the $700,000 his campaign claimed he raised in a press release earlier.
From July 1 through Sept. 30, Kirk reported having more than $1.8 million on hand, compared with about $240,000 for Seals. Kirk listed total receipts of $852,000 for the three-month period compared with about $714,000 for Seals. […]
“I would put a little less stock in those (cash on hand) numbers because we’re spending now,” [Seals] said. “The thing to watch is the turnout - how many people are interested.”
According to campaign finance reports provided by the campaigns, Foster has approximately $692,000 in available cash, compared to Oberweis’ $324,000.
Foster’s camp boasted more than $621,000 in contributions between July 1 and Sept. 30, which supporters described as a quarterly record for a Democrat in the district. […]
Oberweis’ quarterly take was bolstered by his $225,000 personal loan to the campaign, while he received a little more than $88,000 in donations, his report states.
…Callahan has raised a total of about $443,600 and has about $53,170 left to spend in the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 4 general election. […]
Republican Aaron Schock raised a total of about $2,303,155 and has about $466,000 left to spend, although he said the bulk of what’s left will be used on television advertisements this month.
Mayor Daley is gutting Chicago’s community policing budget and reducing staff 25 percent — a cost-cutting move that, critics contend, would leave the 15-year-old crime-fighting program “almost dead.”
“Overtime has been taken off the table. Beat officers don’t have to show up. Now, a third of the staff is gone. That is effectively the end of community policing in Chicago at the worst possible time,” said the Rev. Marshall Hatch, chairman of the Leaders Network. Hatch noted that homicides and other violent crime are rising and the trend is almost certain to continue amid “desperation” tied to the economic downturn. […]
Police spokeswoman Monique Bond tried to put the best possible face on the spending cuts, which follow Weis’ Aug. 5 decision to stop paying overtime to police officers to attend monthly beat meetings or community policing functions. “All departments are having to make sacrifices. The reduction of 72 to 54 [employees] is minimal and will be compensated by other staff assignments,” Bond wrote in an e-mail to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“There is no attempt to de-emphasize or minimize any CAPS program. . . . Community policing programs run parallel to crime-fighting strategies.”
Yeah. OK.
* Inadequate police staffing levels, no union contract for the coppers, an alarming crime rate, impending recession with the resultant crime spike, big cuts to community policing, but there’s plenty of money for this…
The Fraternal Order of Police is trying to block CTA President Ron Huberman from hanging on to his police pension, which Huberman claims he’s entitled to because part of his $198,000-a-year mass transit job revolves around security.
* I told subscribers about a new Rasmussen Reports poll earlier this week, but I figured it was time to clue in the blog as well.
Rasmussen asked: How do you rate the way that Rod Blagojevich is performing his role as Governor? Excellent, good, fair, or poor?
Zero percent rated Gov. Blagojevich performance as “excellent.”
Zero.
As we used to say in Germany: “Nix, Nein, Frankenstein.”
Last month, 3 percent rated Blagojevich’s performance as “excellent,” which ain’t much, but it was at least something.
* Here are this month’s Blagojevich job approval results with last month’s in parentheses…
Excellent 0 (3)
Good 4 (9) Fair 29 (28) Poor 65 (60) Not sure 1 (0)
Notice that his “poor” rating has risen from 60 to 65 percent.
Oof.
* The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform’s David Morrison comments over at Illinoize…
A 2000 General Election exit survey I found on-line suggests that 32% Illinois voters held a favorable view of then-Gov. George Ryan, which was after the first two dozen Operation Safe Roads convictions but still nearly three years before he was indicted and four years before his conviction. It would seem that George Ryan was 8 times as popular as Gov. Blagojevich.
The Blagojevich administration still isn’t saying how many people might be affected by an ill-fated health insurance program the governor launched last year.
A day after a Cook County judge ordered the administration to dismantle the FamilyCare expansion program, the administration wouldn’t say how many people might be left in the lurch from the decision.
‘’We are currently reviewing the decision and are determining how many people would be affected, but the governor is committed to making sure that these families continue to get the insurance they need,'’ said Annie Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
It is not clear why the administration hasn’t said how many people are enrolled in the program, which offered state-backed health insurance to people earning 400 percent of the poverty level, or up to $83,000 annually for a family of four.
What a disaster.
* Speaking of disasters, an overwhelming majority of respondents said they were cutting back on their holiday spending, which generally drives the nation’s economy…
* This holiday season, will you spend more or less on gifts than you did last year?
6% More 69% Less 23% About the same
2% Not sure
* More poll results…
* Should the Illinois State Constitution be amended to give voters the opportunity to recall statewide elected officials?
57% Yes 23% No 20% Not sure
* Do you favor or oppose Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic games?
64% Favor 26% Oppose 10% Not sure
* Senate Election
Sauerberg 31% Durbin 62% Other 0%
Not sure 7%
* 2008 Presidential General Election Match-Ups
McCain 39% Obama 56% Other 0%
Not sure 5%
* In terms of how you will vote for President, are you primarily interested in National Security issues such as the War with Iraq and the War on Terror, Economic issues such as jobs and economic growth, Domestic Issues like Social Security and Health Care, Cultural issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, or Fiscal issues such as taxes and government spending?
50% Economic Issues
19% National Security Issues
9% Domestic Issues
8% Cultural Issues
8% Fiscal Issues
6% Not sure
The economy is everything.
Discuss.
[Illinois Survey of 500 Likely Voters Conducted October 13, 2008. Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 4.5%.]
Efforts to alter a question on the Nov. 4 ballot asking voters if Illinois should hold a constitutional convention were blocked Thursday by a state Appellate Court.
The ruling means that the question, which a Cook County judge has ruled was misleading, will remain on the ballot as is. Instead, voters will be handed a notice with a neutral version of the question, though they must cast their votes on a ballot that features the old language.
* Assessor Houlihan: I believe the time has come to exercise this right and call a constitutional convention. For me, two issues dominate. The education and revenue articles of the state constitution need to be changed.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says he’ll end his prohibition on foreclosure evictions Monday now that new language has been added to court orders aimed at protecting renters who are not properly informed their landlord has lost the property.
The Sun-Times reported this week that Cook County judges began using a new court document for foreclosure evictions that specifically names tenants living at the foreclosed property and states how long they are allowed to remain in units — the length of their lease or 120 days, whichever is shorter — before deputies are allowed to haul out their belongings.
After suspending all evictions related to mortgage foreclosures in Cook County, Sheriff Tom Dart announced Thursday that he would resume those evictions starting next Monday.
The reversal comes after a week of discussions with the court officials responsible for handling mortgage foreclosures to create language that would ensure the rights of good-standing tenants in foreclosed buildings.
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias pledged Thursday to deposit $1 billion more in state money into Illinois banks and credit unions, saying it would help ease the credit crunch and bolster the taxpayers’ return on investments.
The move is designed to help financial institutions loan money in Illinois communities suffering from rising unemployment and the nation’s economic tizzy.
“It’s critical that Illinois take steps now to ease this crisis and get financial institutions lending to local business and consumers again so that this international crisis does not spread to other sectors of the Illinois economy,” Giannoulias said.
llinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias plans to make a $1 billion deposit in the state’s banks, giving them needed cash for borrowers in a bid to dismantle a credit jam and brace the state during the financial crisis.
Giannoulias told The Associated Press he will make the money available to interest-bearing bank accounts by shifting it from lower-yielding investments in one of the first sweeping moves by a state government to face down a menacingly volatile economy. […]
“The foundation of healthy local economy is a strong local lender,” Giannoulias said. “We want them to know that the state’s banker has confidence in our local lenders. As soon as we give them the resources and the capital to continue lending, we can keep businesses open and we can keep jobs here in Illinois.” […]
The billion-dollar bank deposit will move state money away from more conservative investments whose returns are dropping as skittish investors flock to them, Giannoulias said. But the bank deposits will be protected by collateral, he said.
Maybe those banks will loan a bit of money to the state vendors who aren’t being paid in a timely manner and are teetering on the brink.
* Things are getting really bad out there, of course, and Chicago’s budget woes are huge. Buried beneath the bright, shiny ball of yet another Chicago Police Department reorganization is this important, but overlooked nugget…
Meanwhile, Daley hopes to save $10 million by slowing down police hiring next year. He proposes hiring only 200 officers. Mark Donahue, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, warns that attrition could cause the department to be 850 officers under its sworn strength of more than 13,500 officers by the end of 2009.
The cops expect to the ranks will naturally attrit 450 officers by the end of this year, which will leave the city way short even if those new badges hit the streets.
The current first deputy superintendent — who has traditionally run the department from day to day — would become the assistant superintendent of operations.
Mayor Richard Daley warned Wednesday it will take longer to repair potholes and replace burned-out streetlights as he unveiled a 2009 budget plan that would slash the city’s workforce and increase a long list of taxes and fines.
The mayor said his proposal would close a $469 million shortfall and be the first step in a four-year plan to grapple with hard times.
“We think next year will be worse,” Daley told the Tribune’s editorial board after presenting his plan to the City Council.
Even factoring in modest increases in now-plummeting tax revenues, city officials project budget shortfalls of about $200 million a year in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Wages and benefits will grow by about $150 million a year, largely due to the 10-year deal that Daley reached last year with labor unions representing many city workers.
…But with crime skyrocketing and the economy tanking (which is almost always followed by increased crime rates), is this the right time to be cutting back on the police force?
* 10:45 am - An appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling requiring fliers be given to voters which includes new language for the constitutional convention referendum. The brief ruling can be seen at this link.
A Chicago Bar Association lawyer ripped into the statewide ballot asking voters if they favor a constitutional convention as “a joke” Wednesday, saying a judge has already found its language is misleading and false.
No matter how flawed the ballot is, though, there is insufficient time to fix the situation beyond what a judge already has ordered because Election Day is less than three weeks away, an attorney for election officials told an appellate panel. […]
The Illinois Supreme Court said Tuesday that an appellate court should decide how to fix the ballot. The Chicago Bar Association, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and others asked the high court to directly reverse Howse’s remedy for the faulty ballot because so little time remains before the Nov. 4 election.
“It is a joke,” attorney Steven F. Pflaum told appeals Justices Denise O’Malley, Robert Cahill and Joseph Gordon on Wednesday. “This ballot is flagrantly misleading.”
Pflaum and other critics of the ballot want a completely new and separate ballot. Howse said that was impractical and instead ordered officials to give voters a notice in the polling places warning about false and misleading words.
* Meanwhile,Eric Zorn spoke to the guy responsible for that chain e-mail on the constitutional convention that we heard from yesterday…
Other public employees who worry a constitutional convention would result in a loss of their pensions are forwarding an e-mail from Palatine attorney C. John McCauley: A “yes” vote will put pensions in “SEVERE JEOPARDY,” McCauley writes. “If our present constitution is terminated, all will be lost.”
Well, two things.
First, all will not be lost. Article I, Section X, of the U.S. Constitution—which trumps Illinois’ governing document—forbids states from passing laws “impairing the obligation of contracts.”
Existing government pension plans are contracts. So if a new constitution eliminated the pension guarantees, that elimination would not be retroactive.
Even McCauley conceded Wednesday when we spoke that taking away government pension benefits that public employees already have earned would require “overturning decades of rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Second, “Protect government pensions, vote no!” is a lousy slogan for convention opponents.
* We talked a little about this Associated Press story yesterday…
Aaron Schock, the Republican state representative making a strong bid for the 18th District seat in the U.S. House, once notarized documents with false dates while helping his parents set up tax shelters, his own father testified in federal court.
* Schock is taking a three-pronged approach to his counter-spin.
[Aaron Schock] declared that he witnessed the documents being signed on Jan. 1, 2000, but they weren’t actually signed until more than a year later. […]
Richard Schock said they put money and property into a variety of corporations and a charitable trust beginning Jan. 1, 2000, as directed by two of the defendants in the federal trial, Kenton Tylman and Debra Hills. But despite repeated requests, Tylman and Hills did not provide some of the documents for them to sign until spring of the next year.
He testified that the couple signed the documents with the earlier date because that’s when the tax shelters were formally established.
A trial transcript shows Richard Schock was asked, “And your son, Aaron, would not have signed this on January 1 of 2000; isn’t that correct?”
“That’s correct,” he replied.
That doesn’t sound like a “clerical mistake” to me.
Schock says the story was fed to the Associated Press by the National Democratic Party and is nothing more than a smear campaign three weeks before the election.
Local reporters never called the national party or the Associated Press to verify the claim, however.
Schock says the documentation was an accident that happened when he was nineteen, and with almost three weeks till Election Day, his contenders are trying to smear his image.
“I think it’s an act of desperation to go to this document over eight years ago and try and say, well somehow now, Aaron Schock is not qualified.” Schock said.
Amazingly, this angle has remained completely unchallenged in the local press.
Schock’s family did not benefit from backdating the documents
They didn’t benefit because they were defrauded. However, they were obviously trying to profit from what turned out to be phony tax shelters, and admitedly involved their son in the process.
* A road to compensation opens in wrongful conviction cases
Former Illinois inmates exonerated of wrongdoing now have another recourse after enduring long delays for clemency decisions by the governor.
Lawyers at Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions plan to take advantage Wednesday of a new law that allows the exonerated to circumvent the governor and file for certificates of innocence directly from circuit courts.
It’s over budget and behind schedule, but a natural-gas pipeline that will stretch from the Rocky Mountains to eastern Ohio is well under way in Illinois.
Construction is about halfway finished in Illinois, where three firms that are partnering to build the 1,679-mile Rockies Express Pipeline — one of the longest in the nation — expect to spend $1 billion on the state’s portion, pipeline officials said during a Wednesday tour of the construction. By April, the pipeline should be delivering gas here, they said.
Tribune Co. is considering retaining a larger ownership stake in the Chicago Cubs, said sources involved in the deal, as the company explores options to sell the team amid the nation’s worst financial conditions in decades.
With banks reluctant to make loans, Tribune Co. faces increasing risk of prospective buyers dropping out of the auction or being unable to close a deal in the next few months no matter how creditworthy they are. In addition, the higher costs of borrowing could trim the size of the bids.
To address some of the concerns, company officials have tossed out the idea of keeping more than 5 percent of the franchise, said three sources close to the bidding process. In this way, the buyer would have to come up with less cash but still gain controlling interest in the team. When lending markets open up, the buyer would have the option to buy Tribune Co.’s ownership interest.
“Things are very fluid right now,” said a source close to one bidder, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the sales process is ongoing. “Tribune is looking for ways to get the deal done.”
The $1.1 billion figure represents what the hospitals system is seeking from the Cook County Board and President Todd H. Stroger. When pension and other costs currently being carried on the county’s books, rather than the hospitals books, are subtracted, the budget is roughly $1 billion.
The top prosecutors in Lake and McHenry Counties face November election challengers who are upset with the status quo for very different reasons.
In Lake County, Democrat Michael Jacobs is making his second straight run at Republican State’s Atty. Michael Waller, claiming the 18-year incumbent hasn’t done enough to protect the public from sexual predators.
In McHenry County, Thomas Cynor, also a Democrat, claims Republican State’s Atty. Louis Bianchi has done too much when it comes to personnel issues.
Immediately after the debate, CBS News interviewed a nationally representative sample of 638 debate watchers assembled by Knowledge Networks who were “uncommitted voters” - either undecided about who to vote for or who could still change their minds. Fifty-three percent said Obama won the debate, 22 percent said McCain won and another 25 percent thought it was a tie.
McCain won in two categories. Eighty percent of debate watchers polled said McCain spent more time attacking his opponent, with seven percent saying Obama was more on the attack. Fifty-four percent said McCain seemed more like a typical politician during the debate, with 35 percent saying Obama acted more like a typical politician.
