Obama Leads Cain By Double Digits Among Likely Voters

A new Time Magazine poll released this morning shows President Obama with a twelve-point lead on upstart Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.

Those who participated in the survey and said that they would likely vote next year gave the current president the nod over Cain by a percentage margin of 49-37.

Obama also enjoyed a twelve-point lead over Texas Governor Rick Perry.

However, in a matchup with Mitt Romney, Obama led by a narrow three-point margin, 46-43.

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Lawmakers, Labor Leaders Join In Supporting Pending Free Trade Agreements

Members of the House Ways and Means committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee joined leaders from Caterpillar, Boeing and the American Farmers Bureau on Capitol Hill Wednesday to support the Obama backed bills that would eliminate American tariff and non-tariff barriors with Panama, South Korea and Colombia.

Caterpillar’s Washington Director Bill Lane said that America has a massive trade deficit in oil and manufacturing goods, yet has a manufacturing surplus with the 17 countries that it currently has free trade agreements with. 

“If we want to fix the trade deficit, we need freer trade,” Lane said

American Farm Bureau Federation President and CEO Bob Stallman said agriculture will use these agreements to help issues regarding market access, competition and leveling the playing field between nations. The agreements he claims will lead to $2.5 billion in additional exports for agriculture stemming from fewer tarriffs and more market share. Stallman estimates the agreements could add up to 22,000 agriculture jobs.

House Rules Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) spoke out against the AFL-CIO members who rallied last week, insisting that the agreements would eliminate thousands of American jobs, further hurt America’s economy and will be a NAFTA-like failure.

Dreier said he was horrified that organized laborers would oppose a bill that would create 250,000 jobs and bring 97 million consumers and $2 trillion dollars of economic activity to union and non-union American workers.

All three agreements are expected to pass both the House and Senate Wednseday evening.

Obama Continues To Stump For Jobs, Despite Senate Defeat

By Janie Amaya

President Barack Obama continued to tout his administration’s jobs bill, despite seeing it fail to pass a key procedural vote in the Senate Tuesday night.

 I sent Congress a jobs bill made up of the kinds of proposals that, traditionally, Democrats and Republicans have supported.  Independent economists who do this for a living have said the American Jobs Act would lead to more growth and nearly 2 million jobs next year,” Obama said during a forum Wednesday on American Latino Heritage. “But apparently, none of this matters to Republicans in the Senate.  Because last night, even though a majority of senators voted in favor of the American Jobs Act, a Republican minority got together as a group and blocked this jobs bill from passing the Senate.”

Obama added that he refuses taking no for an answer and will continue to pressure Congress to meet its responsibility to put Americans back to work.

Earlier Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that the White House will now focus on passing individual portions of the larger jobs package.

"Underwear Bomber" Pleads Guilty

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the alleged ‘Underwear Bomber,’ pleaded guilty to attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound international flight on Christmas Day 2009.  

The Nigerian man told a Detroit courtroom that the bomb was a “blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims.” 

The guilty plea comes on the second day of his trial. Abdulmatallab was standing trial on eight different charges, including conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, attemped use of weapons of mass destruction and attempted murder. 

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Congressional Approval Returns To All-Time Low

Approval of Congress dropped to 13 percent in October according to a new Gallup poll, tying the lowest approval ratings from December 2010 and this August.

The approval rate remains low among both Democrats and Republicans, with only Americans from both parties giving Congress 14 percent approval. Approval among Americans who identify themselves as independents rests at 13 percent.

“Given the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, partisans from both major parties may feel at liberty to blame Congress for the nation’s problems,” a statement from Gallup reads.

In September, approval was registered at 15 percent. It has not been above 20 percent since June, 2011.

The poll was conducted between October 6th and 9th among 1,005 adults. It was released on Wednesday.