We Built That: Small Business Abandons Romney and Supports Obama, 47%-39%

[one...two...tree 2,762]

More evidence that the roof is caving in on Mitt Romney came today from a poll of small business owners conducted by George Washington University School of Political Management, which found Obama leading Romney, 47%-39%.

Not only is Obama leading Romney, but the George Washington University poll also found that small business owners thought President Obama was more supportive of them than Mitt Romney by 39%-31% margin, with 28% undecided.

6,415 small business owners were asked what their single most important issue was in their choice for president. Forty percent of them responded the economy and jobs. Fourteen percent listed corruption/honesty/ethics in government, six percent responded social/moral issues, and five percent said it was beating Romney/supporting Obama/electing Democrats. Obamacare, beating Obama/electing Romney/supporting Republicans, and the budget deficit all tied at 5%. Two staples of the Romney campaign, taxes was mentioned by 3%, and government regulation was not mentioned at all. The three most important issues to small business owners were unemployment and the job market (26%), the federal budget deficit (16%), and healthcare costs (10%).

Small business owners listed self-employment taxes, the cost of gas, healthcare costs, and personal income taxes to be the biggest burdens. President Obama has cut taxes for small businesses anywhere from 16 to 18 times depending on how a small business tax cut is defined. In contrast Mitt Romney came up with a slogan, but the benefits of his tax plan are designed for corporations and people at the top. Romney's plan would give the biggest corporations a $1 trillion tax cut.

As a businessman Romney should have natural appeal to small business owners and should be running away from Obama, but he is losing to the president. His attempt to mobilize small business behind him with the class warfare battle cry we built that fell flat and has vanished from his campaign.

Republicans love to claim that Obama is unfit to be president because he has never run a business, but small business owners are supporting Obama because he understands their concerns. Mitt Romney has no idea what it is like to run a small business in today's economy, and even worse, he appears to have no interest in learning.

http://www.politicus...bama-47-39.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Thumbtack politics?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Study: Small Business Owners Support Obamacare

Throughout his campaign, Mitt Romney has continued to claim that the Affordable Care Act hurts small businesses. But a new study on small businesses contradicts Romney's claims. Conducted by a business advocacy group, Small Business Majority, an opinion poll surveyed 800 businesses owners across the country. And the results show that over half of the respondents – who were all small business owners – strongly support the law.

Key findings from the study indicated that 50 percent of small business owners want the health care reform law to be upheld by the Supreme Court, in its entirety or with just minor changes. Only one-third of the respondents wanted the Supreme Court to overturn the law. However, after learning more about the law's details, support for keeping the law intact grew to 56 percent.

John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, said the results show that small business owners view Obamacare as a positive move for their businesses:

Contrary to popular belief, small business owners do not want the high court to throw out the Affordable Care Act. They see this law as helping everyone have coverage and bringing down healthcare costs—something that has been one of their top concerns for years. We hope Supreme Court justices understand how important this law is to small businesses who need relief from high healthcare costs.

Polling also indicated that the respondents heavily support the key provisions of health care reform. Seventy-eight percent back prohibiting insurers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions and nearly 70 percent also want to prevent insurance companies from basing rates on health status. In addition, a vast majority favor allowing young adults up to age 26 to stay on their parents' plans.

http://thinkprogress...port-obamacare/

Edited November 4, 2012 by Commie Appeaser

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Many Small Businesses Still Support Obama. Here's Why

Here it is, only a few weeks before the Presidential election, and I'm still on the fence. Can you believe it? I'm a registered Republican who voted for Obama in 2008. I like both candidates and I see weaknesses in both candidates. I'm not convinced that either has the answers or that either team of economic experts really knows what its talking about. When it comes to the economy, I think I'm leaning Romney but I admit that I'm not entirely sure which candidate would be best for my small business.

Apparently, though, this is not the case for many small business owners. According to recent polls, it's a very close race. And oftentimes it's President Obama who's more popular.

As recently as last week I participated in a small business event in Chicago sponsored by Dell where more than half of the 100 small businesses surveyed said they would vote for President Obama. Another recent survey also reported that a majority of small business owners favor Obama and are more optimistic for 2013. Just last month small business respondents to a George Washington University survey felt that Governor Romney would be less supportive than the President. And even though one in three small businesses say they're worse off than in 2008, another poll found that Obama had gained significant ground. That said, it's not all one-sided. A bunch of small tech CEOs say that Romney's better for the economy; a recent poll found that small businesses showed significant preference for the Romney-Ryan ticket.

But shouldn't this election be more lopsided? The slow growth, the high unemployment, the tough times, the declining incomes over the past few years--isn't President Obama the "anti-business" President? Don't we hear businesses complaining about the excessive regulations, uncertainty, and high taxes created by this administration? Shouldn't Obama be winning hands down with voters in the public or education sector and unions, but getting trounced by those from the small business community? If anything, the President is holding his own among small business voters and, depending on which report you read, he's beating Governor Romney.

So why is President Obama still popular with small business owners? Here's what I hear:

1. "We're From Obama-land."

For starters, can we trust the voter data? The Yankees can't trust that umpires will make an accurate call. Jack Welch can't trust the way the nation's unemployment rate is calculated. And I certainly don't trust the Nielsen ratings; How in the world could Elementary be one of the most-watched shows in the country? I've never even heard of it! The data behind the voter surveys needs a little closer scrutiny. Dell, for example, polled business owners in Chicago land (because that's where its event was) and Chicago and is, of course, Obama territory. Other companies that sanctioned these polls did so with outside polling firms, I guess. Do you know who they are? What questions were asked? Who they actually spoke to? Where these respondents are located? I can't walk 100 yards in my suburban Philadelphia neighborhood without tripping over an Obama-Biden sign. If I took that same walk in a suburb of Denver I'm sure I'd be tripping over a ton of Romney-Paul signs...and getting shot at in the process! There are anywhere between 20 million to 30 million small businesses in this country. I got a C+ in statistics in college so I'm no expert. But I'm pretty sure none of these polling organizations are taking a representative sample. How could they? I'm not picking up the phone at dinner when they call. Are you?

2. "I don't have a safety net like the big, small guys."

And about those 20 million to 30 million small businesses. How are they defined? Is a company "small" when it has 100 employees? 500? This is important because President Obama is a populist. He reaches out to the middle and working classes. He's the anti-rich guy. There are millions of "small" businesses that are truly small--shops and restaurants and home businesses that employ fewer than 10 people. These are people generally earning less than those he'd define as "wealthy," and who fit right into his target audience. To this group, the President has talked about the importance of small business and, over the past four years, has proposed a myriad of incentives, job creation packages, and tax relief. Small business owners have no employer to look after them. They are scared about the economy, scared about losing that one big customer, scared about how old the Fonz looks in Kevin James' new movie. The "don't worry, the government's got your back" speech appeals to many in this group. I don't personally buy into it and I don't agree with many of the President's ideas. But his heart's in the right place. So I get his appeal.

3. "The pollsters never asked my opinion."

The ones who definitely don't buy into the Obama's "heart's in the right place" thinking are not small business owners. But they're not big business people either. They're the medium guys. Those are the guys that run companies with more than 10 employees. These are the guys (women too, of course) who employ a full time human resources administrator (now that's when you know you're no longer a "small" business)! I meet and speak to thousands of these people and they--I can tell you anecdotally--generally despise the President. That's because they're probably making enough to be classified as one of the "wealthy". They're sitting on their cash (which they did indeed build on their own) because they don't want to take the risk to invest, expand, and hire in these "uncertain economic times." They resent the government getting into their affairs. I'm not sure many of these guys are part of the surveys conducted. That's because they're not a good story. The good story is the struggling landscaper who's trying to feed his family or the cute single lady who started her own cupcake business ("Cake Baby," of all things)--and then got into a big mess when she was asked to be the maid of honor at her best friend's wedding until all was made right when Wilson Phillips sang that annoying song and she hooked up with that cop with the Irish accent. Angry-upper-middle-class-medium-sized-businesspeople running companies that employ 150 people and manufacture corrugated containers just don't make as good a story...or poll respondent.

4. "We're doing just great, thank you very much."

Let's not forget that no one can really speak on behalf of "small business." Oftentimes, as someone who writes and talks to groups about small business issues, I will get asked: "So...how is small business doing?" How does one reply to that? "All 20 million are doing just fine, Chuck, thanks for asking?" If you're a small business in the education industry, or running a restaurant near Washington D.C., or providing contract services to a firm that's received stimulus money, or getting government grants to perform alternative energy research, then you're liking President Obama. If you're in the oil and gas or financial services industries--um, not so much. I'm not sure who's being asked these questions in all those polls, but I'm betting the poll results have a lot to do with that too.

5. "Meh."

Finally, I'm getting a lot of this from the small business owners I speak to: "whatever." That's because so many of us are tired of the promises, weary of the partisan bickering, and out of patience with our politicians across the board. We've heard the assurances before. And like each episode of Homeland where we think Carrie the CIA agent is going to finally nab Brody the terrorist, we're once again disappointed. We're not convinced that anybody's going to change anything too much for the better or worse, so we're resigned to stick with who we know (i.e. President Obama) because at least we know what we're going to get. We're just a tiny fragment of the world so what impact do we have anyway? We've got other pressing things to worry about, like where our next vacation will be, or if Jonathan will play goalie for his under 11 soccer team next year. That national debt? Health care reform? Competition from China? Hopefully those problems will just sort themselves out, right?

See? President Obama, the scourge of Wall Street, the demonic anti-business President, has his supporters among small businesses. I'm not sure if I'm one of them, but I understand why others would be.

http://www.inc.com/g...-heres-why.html

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[The Nature Boy 4,224]

More evidence that the roof is caving in on Mitt Romney came today from a poll of small business owners conducted by George Washington University School of Political Management, which found Obama leading Romney, 47%-39%.

Not only is Obama leading Romney, but the George Washington University poll also found that small business owners thought President Obama was more supportive of them than Mitt Romney by 39%-31% margin, with 28% undecided.

6,415 small business owners were asked what their single most important issue was in their choice for president. Forty percent of them responded the economy and jobs. Fourteen percent listed corruption/honesty/ethics in government, six percent responded social/moral issues, and five percent said it was beating Romney/supporting Obama/electing Democrats. Obamacare, beating Obama/electing Romney/supporting Republicans, and the budget deficit all tied at 5%. Two staples of the Romney campaign, taxes was mentioned by 3%, and government regulation was not mentioned at all. The three most important issues to small business owners were unemployment and the job market (26%), the federal budget deficit (16%), and healthcare costs (10%).

Small business owners listed self-employment taxes, the cost of gas, healthcare costs, and personal income taxes to be the biggest burdens. President Obama has cut taxes for small businesses anywhere from 16 to 18 times depending on how a small business tax cut is defined. In contrast Mitt Romney came up with a slogan, but the benefits of his tax plan are designed for corporations and people at the top. Romney's plan would give the biggest corporations a $1 trillion tax cut.

As a businessman Romney should have natural appeal to small business owners and should be running away from Obama, but he is losing to the president. His attempt to mobilize small business behind him with the class warfare battle cry we built that fell flat and has vanished from his campaign.

Republicans love to claim that Obama is unfit to be president because he has never run a business, but small business owners are supporting Obama because he understands their concerns. Mitt Romney has no idea what it is like to run a small business in today's economy, and even worse, he appears to have no interest in learning.

http://www.politicus...bama-47-39.html

Your basically posting a lie. The poll was not conducted by the George Washington University school of Political Management. It was a biased hack job of a poll conducted by Thumbtack.com. They consulted with a professor from the School. The school did not endorse, fund or conduct the poll.

It was also only of members of thumbtack.com

In other words it is a hack job.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Poll: Obama leads Romney among small business owners

The Business Journals by Kent Hoover, Washington Bureau Chief

President Barack Obama leads Republican challenger Mitt Romney by 47 percent to 39 percent in a new survey of small business owners.

The survey of 6,145 small business owners was conducted by the George Washington University School of Political Management and Thumbtack.com. Of this sample of likely voters, 32 percent identified themselves as Democrats, 29 percent as Republicans and 39 percent as independents.

http://www.bizjourna...mong-small.html

...........

The Business Journals is the premier media solutions platform for companies strategically targeting business decision makers. We deliver a total business audience of over 10 million people via our 42 websites, 61 publications and over 700 annual industry leading events. Our media products provide comprehensive coverage of business news from a local, regional and national perspective. We have more people, publications and websites covering our nation's business than any other business media organization.

The Business Journals are a division American City Business Journals

Edited November 5, 2012 by Commie Appeaser

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Survey Released by GW and Thumbtack.com Reveals that Condoleezza Rice is Top Pick by Small Businesses for VP Candidate

WASHINGTON - Former Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice is the top pick for small businesses for Mitt Romney's vice president selection, according to a survey released by the George Washington University andThumbtack.com. Responses from 5,689 small businesses were included in the survey "The Thumbtack.com - George Washington University Vice Presidential Poll" regarding Republican candidate and former Gov. Mitt Romney's (R-MA) running mate selection. In a joint effort by GW Professor David Rehr in the Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM) and Thumbtack.com, this survey provides a glimpse into whom the nation's entrepreneurs would like to see Gov. Romney choose as his vice presidential running mate. A full explanation of the survey's methodology and national results are available in addition to a breakout of the results in the "battleground states."

http://www.gspm.gwu.edu/Search?ordering=&searchphrase=all&searchword=poll+small+business