The day after Lockheed was informed Obama would pick up severance costs for their laid off employees, Lockheed said they'd hold off on planned Nov. 2, 2012 dismissals.
10/1/12, "Did Lockheed Martin Just Win Virginia for Obama?"Atlantic Wire, John Hudson
"It's difficult to understate the importance of Lockheed Martin's latest announcement on the race for the White House: the defense contractor said on Monday it will not be issuing employee layoff notices to 123,000 workers on Nov. 2—just four days before the presidential election. Amidst all of the super PACs and campaign ads, the threat of telling a sizable chunk of voters in key areas of the country that they could lose their jobs if the election didn't go Lockheed's way was one of the most potent examples of corporate electioneering. But the layoff threat was largely unreported outside of Beltway trade publications. Here's why today's announcement matters:
Why was Lockheed Martin threatening to send layoff notices to 123,000 employees?
In one word: Sequestration, the Congress-approved plan to strip some $500 billion in defense spending over the next ten years. In June, Lockheed said it would have to issue layoff notices to workers under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act due to impending Pentagon budget cuts. Lockheed wanted assurances from the government that its contracts wouldn't be affected by sequestration.
So what?
Do you know where many of Lockheed Martin's employees reside? Virginia, one of the all-important swing states of this election. It's a historically Republican state. In fact, before Obama's 2008 election, no Democratic presidential candidate had won the state since Lyndon Johnson's 1964 bid. And pretty much all electoral map prognosticators say that if Obama wins both Virginia and Ohio this year, Mitt Romney has practically no chance of winning the presidential race. That's why if one of the biggest employers in the state were to issue layoff notices days ahead of the election, it could be devastating for President Obama.
OK. So why aren't the layoffs happening?
On Friday, the Pentagon issued guidance that promised two important things. "The guidance said the Pentagon did not anticipate killing any contracts on Jan. 2, the day automatic spending cuts are set to begin hitting defense spending," reports The Hill's Jeremy Herb. "The guidance also said the federal government would cover severance costs that are mandated under a federal layoff notices law." Voila! The next business day, Lockheed Martin announces it will no longer be issuing layoff notices.
Wow. But could this really have affected the race?
Definitely. Romney and Obama are neck-and-neck in Virginia, as CNN's political unit reports:
It is very close. In two out of three recent polls, the margin of error, coupled with the percentage of undecided voters, leaves Virginia up for grabs. The latest, a Suffolk University/WWBT-Richmond survey, shows Obama with a 46%-44% edge among likely voters in Virginia. Two point margin is within the poll's sampling error. Seven percent are undecided.That brings up the issue of how many Lockheed employees actually live in Virginia."...via Free Republic
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11/23/2008, "The Apotheosis of Soros," Wall St. Journal, "The billionaire gets his moment in the sun." Collin Levy
"Hedge-fund billionaire and left-wing political activist George Soros has become one of the Democratic Party's most important players. Now that Barack Obama is in the White House, his influence is due to expand even further as the web of activist groups he funds becomes the new brain-trust of the incoming administration.
Mr. Soros has been a friend to Barack Obama since Mr. Obama first ran for Senate in Illinois in 2004. Because of a special provision of the campaign finance law that allows greater contributions to candidates who are running against millionaires, Mr. Soros was able to donate $60,000 to Mr. Obama's campaign against primary opponent Blair Hull and then against Republican Jack Ryan. Four members of the Soros family also donated to Mr. Obama's Senate campaign, making Mr. Obama one of only a handful of candidates -- including Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and Barbara Boxer -- to receive the richest Soros nod.
Mr. Soros's influence on Democratic policy has been years in the making, through groups like the Center for American Progress, which he helped underwrite back in 2003 (along with film producer Stephen Bing) to the tune of several million dollars. CAP is currently headed by former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta, now Mr. Obama's transition team leader. With 180 staffers and a $27 million budget, the group is expected to play a role in the Obama administration similar to that played by the American Enterprise Institute during the Bush years, as a feeder for staff and a pusher of liberal ideas."...
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