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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Obama Plans Wisconsin Advertising, Signaling the State Is Now in Play

By JEFF ZELENY

“On, Wisconsin!”

That is the title of the Badgers fight song at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as one of the official state songs. It also underscores a new dynamic in the presidential race.

President Obama's re-election campaign on Tuesday added Wisconsin to its list of targeted states. The campaign's first television advertisements there are set to begin on Thursday, a sign that the state is more competitive than the Obama campaign had once expected.

Mitt Romney's campaign started its advertisements in Wisconsin earlier this week. Outside groups on both sides have also been advertising in the state.

All of those movements, aides said, led Mr. Obama to start his a dvertising in a state he won by 14 percentage points four years ago. Democratic presidential candidates have carried the state since 1988, but it was among the most fiercely competitive battlegrounds in 2000 and 2004.

“With Romney up on the air now in addition to his Republican allies, we're not taking anything for granted,” said Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign.

Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, is scheduled to campaign near Green Bay on Wednesday. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is set to campaign in the state on Thursday.

Wisconsin is among eight tossup states, according to The New York Times's battleground rankings.



Rhode Island Primary Tests New Voter ID Law

By JESS BIDGOOD

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Candy McSwain and Bonnie Stevenson, two poll workers in this city's diverse Elmwood neighborhood, peered at Jeziel Jared Lopez's passport and expired state ID card and consulted the state's new list of acceptable forms of voter identification.

“It says U.S. passport,” said Ms. McSwain, pointing to the list.

“This is O.K.,” Ms. Stevenson said, clearing the way for Mr. Lopez, 18, to vote for the first time.

Rhode Island's state primary on Tuesday gave its new voter identification law its most strenuous exercise yet, stirring dissent and praise from voters who lined up with ID cards, while officials reported few identification-related voting problems.

The law, wh ich went into effect this year, requires voters to show a photo ID, bank statement or government-issued document before they are allowed to vote. Its list of accepted forms of identification will become more restrictive in 2014, when only photo IDs will be accepted.

The state's list of acceptable identification includes IDs from workplaces and gyms, making the law more flexible than similar ones passed in states like Pennsylvania. It also allows voters without IDs to fill out a provisional ballot.

The law was in effect for the presidential primary and two municipal special elections earlier this year; in those elections, of about 25,000 ballots cast, fewer than 30 provisional ballots were needed for voter-related issues - one of which was rejected, according to Chris Barnett, spokesman for the secretary of state.

By early Tuesday evening, the secretary of state's office was aware of only two uses of provisional ballots, af ter visits to 13 polling locations.

“This is as smooth as we had hoped it would go,” said Mr. Barnett, who said his office had distributed more than 700 free identification cards to voters who requested them before the election.

In Elmwood, Robert Emmanuel, a singer, had to leave the polling place to fetch his ID, but he was unperturbed. “I don't see why it's so controversial,” Mr. Emmanuel said. “People need to prove who they are.”

An Elmwood poll worker, who said her name was simply Raffini, wondered if the low number of requests for provisional ballots was because people without ID had decided to stay home. “To tell you the truth, the ID issue's probably just going to make people not come,” she said.

That has been a concern for advocacy organizations like Rhode Island's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which said it had received two complaints related to the identification requirement on Tuesday.

“I don't thi nk there's any question that there are people who aren't aware of the broad acceptability of documents for this election,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the state's chapter. “This was totally unnecessary and will certainly have an adverse effect on certain categories of voters - poor, racial minorities,” repeating a criticism often levied by those opposed to voter ID laws.

David Thomas, a disabled voter in Elmwood, said he was changing his party affiliation to the Green Party from the Democratic Party, in part because of some Rhode Island Democrats' support for the law. “I feel like a piece of cattle, basically,” Mr. Thomas said. “You're erasing a certain group of people off of the block. I look at it as a new Jim Crow situation.”

But other voters in the neighborhood showered praise upon the law.

“I think it avoids fraud and makes things clear - you vote and you say who you are,” said Rosa Perez, a registered Democrat who teache s math at a public high school. Like several other voters interviewed in Providence on Tuesday, Ms. Perez pointed out that the policy was consistent with that of her native country, the Dominican Republic.

“In Latin America, people show identification - you have to show ID,” said Ms. Perez. “I think it's right.”



TimesCast Politics: Some Republican Nervousness After the Conventions

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Jim Wilson/The New York Times


Polls: Obama Gains Ground on Some Measures

By ALLISON KOPICKI

An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows several signs of strength for President Obama after the national conventions, but among likely voters, the presidential race remains deadlocked.

The poll finds Mr. Obama with 50 percent support to Mitt Romney's 44 percent support among registered voters, his best showing since early April in ABC News/Washington Post surveys, a difference that is within the poll's margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.

But among likely voters, gleaned through screens used by polling organizations once voters begin paying a lot of attention to the race by late summer and fall, the candidates are running neck and neck, with 49 percent for Mr. Obama a nd 48 percent for Mr. Romney.

This week portends to be a very busy reporting period for major media polling organizations, now that the political conventions have ended and surveys are examining whether either candidate has received much of a bounce from the gatherings. So far, polls have shown that Mr. Romney received little or no bounce after the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., while in the time since the Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C., ended last Thursday, survey results for Mr. Obama have generally given him an edge. The CNN/ORC International poll released on Monday put the president ahead at 52 percent to Mr. Romney's 46 percent.

With only about 1 in 10 voters remaining truly undecided during this election cycle, small gains or losses in the polls are viewed as more meaningful to the campaigns.

The ABC News/Washington Post survey showed Mr. Obama also gaining ground on a few measures among the larger samp le of registered voters, including on handling taxes and Medicare, and being seen as the stronger leader. Enthusiasm among his supporters also grew, and new highs of support came from Democrats and men. Mr. Romney's support eroded among moderates, whites and higher-income voters.

Mr. Romney was seen by registered voters as better understanding what it takes to build a successful small business, and runs even with Mr. Obama on handling health care policy. However, while more than half of voters disapprove of the president's handling of the economy, a majority said the economy would not have improved under Mr. Romney.

And as always, it will be up to Mr. Obama and his campaign team to maintain the level of support seen in the ABC News/Washington Post poll in the next eight weeks of campaigning, or if the enthusiasm will diminish.

In addition, Gallup has a new analysis showing that despite Mr. Obama's tepid job approval ratings, a number of important economic a nd national mood indicators watched by Gallup are higher now than in February 2009, after Mr. Obama's inauguration.

Gallup's Economic Confidence Index was at negative 58 in Mr. Obama's first full month in office, and after a quick rise and a few dips over the last three and a half years, it is still in negative territory, but has been roughly cut in half, to negative 27 in August 2012. Gallup's Job Creating Index has also risen to a positive 19 from a negative 5 since Mr. Obama took office.

Only 15 percent of Americans were satisfied with the way things were going in the United States in February 2009; that number has fluctuated throughout Mr. Obama's presidency, falling to 11 percent in August and September 2011, but has risen back to 25 percent of Americans being satisfied now. And in August, nearly half of Americans said their standard of living was improving, compared with just over a third who said that in February 2009.

The ABC News/Washington Post po ll was conducted by telephone Sept. 7 to 9, among 826 registered voters, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. Gallup's analysis is based on trends from both Gallup daily tracking and monthly polls, in which interviews are conducted by telephone among samples of at least 1,000 national adults.



Biden Invites Shanksville Firefighters to the White House for a Beer

By PETER BAKER

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. - Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stopped by the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department after his speech marking the anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to greet the firefighters and arrived just in time for the barbecue and a little earthy talk.

Jumping out of his limousine, Mr. Biden immediately encountered Deputy Chief Brad Shober, 44, of Shanksville, who had been among the firefighters who visited him at the vice president's residence a year ago. At the time, Mr. Shober said, the vice president gave him a ceremonial coin and told him, “Next time I see you, if you have that coin, drinks are on me.”

When Mr. Biden saw that he had the coin, he invited Mr. Shober and the rest of the firefighters to visit him again to Washington and pointed to an aide. “He's going to call you,” Mr. Biden said, then using an expletive.

Then noticing reporters following him, the vice president said, “I didn't know you guys were here.”

Turning back to Mr. Shober, he cleaned up the language. “This is no malarkey. You come to the White House. I'll buy you a beer.”

Mr. Biden worked the group of firefighters as he typically does, gripping their shoulders, joking with them, telling them Delaware stories. One firefighter said, “You got my vote.” Mr. Biden replied, “Thank you, man. That's not why I'm here, but thank you.”

He talked again about hosting them after the election. “Win, lose or draw, I'm still going to be vice president in January.” They should come, he said. “That's a deal.” He added: “I give you my word. I'm not just saying it.”

He gathered the firefighters a nd posed for pictures in front of a red fire truck with a banner “United We Stand” in red white and blue. Looking at the clear sky, he said, “Isn't it eerie? The day's just like it was.”

Then he headed over to the grill. “Come on, let's go get one. I want a hot dog.” He actually served himself a hamburger and put a slice of American cheese on it. He pulled a $20 bill out of his wallet and put it in a firefighter's boot that was used to deposit donations.

“I want the record to show,” he said. Then noting Secretary Ken Salazar behind him in line, he added: “My twenty covers both of us.”

Asked what his wife, Jill Biden, would think of his diet, he said, “She's going to say, ‘Joe, what the hell are you doing?' I just ate a peanut butter sandwich between here and there.”



LearnVest Dips Its Toes Into Investment Advice

By ANN CARRNS

LearnVest.com, which started out several years ago as a budgeting and money management site aimed at young women, is dipping its toes into the world of investment advice and has spiffed up its online tools to appeal to a broader audience.

LearnVest announced Tuesday that it had become a registered investment adviser, or R.I.A., which means that its certified financial planners - who give advice to the site's users over the phone and by e-mail - can go beyond telling you to save more and pay off your credit card debt and suggest what sort of investments you should use for your retirement money.

However, while LearnVest aims to offer unbiased financial advice at a reasonable price to people who aren't millionaires, its offering for now stops short of what many investors may truly want and need. Unlike other sites aimed at smaller investors, such as Betterment, LearnVest doesn't offer advice about specific investments or fund families, and doesn't actually execute trades or move money.

Rather, the site's investment advice focuses on educating clients about asset class and allocation in general, not recommendations for specific investments, said Alexa von Tobel, the site's founder and chief executive. For instance, planners will focus on what proportion of your portfolio should be in large company stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, real estate, cash, etc.  Ms. von Tobel said LearnVest wanted its clients to “feel empowered to select their own investments,” preferably low-cost exchange-traded funds and mutual funds, which she noted were available from a number of providers.

Although the advice may get more specific in the future as c lient demands evolve, she said, “For now, we're not going to say, ‘go with this stock versus this stock.'”

In a follow-up e-mail, she said the site was “not offering implementation at this time because we're focused on helping our clients get a solid footing in the investing space by understanding risk, portfolio allocation and how to minimize fees,” so they can successfully choose investments on their own.

Clients also are on their own in terms of re-balancing investments in retirement accounts and purchasing actual investments. A sample “Portfolio Builder” plan provided by LearnVest, which includes the investment advice component, simply contrasts a fictional client's existing asset allocation with a recommended distribution. It also advises clients on how to vet a brokerage firm, before suggesting that they “take a look at Betterment, Vanguard, Scottrade, Charles Schwab, Fidelity and E*Trade.”

LearnVest's basic tools - its budgeting and money-management features, where you can view all your accounts in one place - are available free. If users want to gain access to a planner, they pay according to the level of service. Previously, the highest level was $349 a year, which included development of a five-year financial plan. Now, the highest level is  the “Portfolio Builder” option at $599 a year, which includes a financial plan as well as “personalized guidance” on your investments from a certified financial planner over the phone and by e-mail.

The annual fee includes an introductory diagnostic call and three subsequent calls with your adviser, along with unlimited e-mail access. You don't get to pick your adviser, but you'll speak with the same one each time. That flat fee is all you pay; LearnVest doesn't charge an additional fee based on the total amount of assets under management.

A question now for LearnVest is whether the site's financial planners can provide quality service to th e volume of clients interested in their services. Ms. von Tobel says LearnVest will have 50 certified financial planners on staff by the end of the year, although she's unsure how many of them will be full time.

A traditional financial planner might handle between 250 and 350 clients on average, she said, although that number varies greatly depending on the clients' wealth and the complexity of their financial situations. Since she says LearnVest's planners operate more efficiently, she expects they will be able to handle “a good amount” over that range, although she can't yet say just how many that might be.

LearnVest has at least 300,000 users, according to numbers the company released six months ago.

As an R.I.A., LearnVest's planners will have a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of their clients, Ms. von Tobel said. The full-time planners will be salaried and will get bonuses based on customer satisfaction, she said; neither they nor LearnVest as a company receive commissions for selling investments to clients. LearnVest said in its announcement that its planners would “remain completely unbiased, with no product recommendations throughout the client's experience.” (Part-time planners must work at least 12 hours a week and will be paid a per-client rate, and also will be evaluated based on customer satisfaction).

Certified financial planners must undergo specific training, pass an exam and have at least two years of experience before earning the designation. In addition, Ms. von Tobel described a detailed hiring process that includes having candidates create a video explaining a financial issue and developing a complex financial plan before they are interviewed. The planners will work from locations around the country, she said.

Along with the addition of the R.I.A. designation, LearnVest has added more features to its Web site, such as the ability for a client's financial planner to log onto a Web page while they are talking to view the client's finances at the same time that the client is seeing it. Ms. von Tobel said clients had suggested the idea, which helps streamline interactions between the adviser and the customer. (Planners don't have access to the information unless they are online with the client, she said.)

What do you think of LearnVest's approach? Would you pay $599 for its level of investment advice?



Working Until 70 May Not Solve Savings Shortfall

By ANN CARRNS

Research from the nonprofit Employee Benefits Research Institute throws cold water on the notion that working until age 70 will set most Americans up for adequate retirement income.

Jack VanDerhei, research director at E.B.R.I., says some studies have suggested that by working to age 70 - five years past the traditional retirement age of 65 - nearly 80 percent of preretirees, including lower-income Americans, could have adequate retirement income. But such models, he said, don't fully take into account changes in the retirement system, such as the shift away from pension plans and toward 401(k) accounts, or the potential for a catastrophic health event that would require a stay in a nursing home.

Wh en those factors are accounted for, he said, the outlook is less optimistic, especially for lower-income workers. E.B.R.I.'s analytical model, he said, indicates that for those in the lowest quarter of incomes, workers would have to toil until age 84 before 90 percent of them would have at least a break-even chance for success.

That doesn't mean, he said, that he is advocating that everyone work until their 80s, or that working that long is feasible. But it does suggest, he said, that it is a risky notion to think that you can work until you're 65 and then simply work five more years if you don't haven't saved enough. If a couple near retirement age has one member who become ill and requires a lengthy nursing home stay, he said, a good chunk of their savings may be exhausted. “How can you ignore that?” he said.

It's much less of a gamble, he said, to save more while you're working, if you can: “It's much less risky than waiting until you're 65 or 67 and see ing what happens.”

How long do you plan on working?



Working Until 70 May Not Solve Savings Shortfall

By ANN CARRNS

Research from the nonprofit Employee Benefits Research Institute throws cold water on the notion that working until age 70 will set most Americans up for adequate retirement income.

Jack VanDerhei, research director at E.B.R.I., says some studies have suggested that by working to age 70 - five years past the traditional retirement age of 65 - nearly 80 percent of preretirees, including lower-income Americans, could have adequate retirement income. But such models, he said, don't fully take into account changes in the retirement system, such as the shift away from pension plans and toward 401(k) accounts, or the potential for a catastrophic health event that would require a stay in a nursing home.

Wh en those factors are accounted for, he said, the outlook is less optimistic, especially for lower-income workers. E.B.R.I.'s analytical model, he said, indicates that for those in the lowest quarter of incomes, workers would have to toil until age 84 before 90 percent of them would have at least a break-even chance for success.

That doesn't mean, he said, that he is advocating that everyone work until their 80s, or that working that long is feasible. But it does suggest, he said, that it is a risky notion to think that you can work until you're 65 and then simply work five more years if you don't haven't saved enough. If a couple near retirement age has one member who become ill and requires a lengthy nursing home stay, he said, a good chunk of their savings may be exhausted. “How can you ignore that?” he said.

It's much less of a gamble, he said, to save more while you're working, if you can: “It's much less risky than waiting until you're 65 or 67 and see ing what happens.”

How long do you plan on working?



A Journalist With Rare Access to Obama Had to Play by Quote Rule

By JEREMY PETERS

Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of “Moneyball” and “The Big Short,” was granted extraordinary access to President Obama for his latest article in Vanity Fair.

But with that access came one major condition.

Like other journalists who write about Washington and presidential politics, Mr. Lewis said that he had to submit to the widespread but rarely disclosed practice of quote approval.

During a discussion at Lincoln Center on Monday night with Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, Mr. Lewis volunteered to the audience that as a condition of cooperating with his story, the White House insisted on signing off on the quotes that would appear.

Mr. Lewis said that ultimat ely the White House disallowed very little of what he asked to use. And he described having access to the president that was unusually unfettered. About 95 percent of what he witnessed was on the record, he said.

What the White House asked to leave off the record, Mr. Lewis added, was usually of little relevance to his article anyway - like a discussion between Mr. Obama and his political strategists about their electoral strategy in Florida.

Mr. Lewis said there was one particularly moving exchange with the president that he wished he could have described in greater detail. But the White House nixed the idea, perhaps wary of having the commander in chief described as in tears.

Mr. Lewis declined to delve into too much detail because he said he did not want to violate the ground rules he agreed to, but he did offer that the president explained to him how the job exacts a heavy emotional toll. The president told Mr. Lewis how on e evening after a particularly trying day, he sat down to watch a movie and surprised himself by suddenly tearing up.

In the discussion with Mr. Carter on Monday, Mr. Lewis described a White House staff that seemed to be extremely wary of his presence around the president. He said that in one exchange with Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, Mr. Carney expressed reservations about cooperating. But ultimately, Mr. Lewis recalled Mr. Carney saying, his concerns didn't matter because the boss wanted to do the story.

That meant Mr. Lewis was allowed to peek behind the White House curtain in a way that few journalists ever have.

Over an eight-month period, Mr. Lewis conducted multiple interviews with the president. He rode in the official presidential limousine. He was given a special lapel pin that designated him to the Secret Service as someone who was allowed to be in close proximity to the president.

When he flew with the president on several foreign and domestic trips, he sat not with the rest of the press corps in the back of Air Force One, but near the front. And the president even allowed Mr. Lewis to play on his basketball team.

But that pursuit did not end quite as Mr. Lewis had hoped. The president benched him.



A Quiet and Solemn Day of Remembrance

By PETER BAKER

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. - On another Tuesday morning with another clear, late-summer sky that seemed eerily familiar, the nation's leaders briefly put aside a divisive political campaign to mark the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil.

The commemorations 11 years after that grim day were noticeably subdued. New York leaders intentionally kept politicians from speaking at the site of the worst of the attacks to avoid politicizing the moment. While the president and Mr. Romney pulled down advertising for the day in deference to sensibilities, they made no effort to duplicate the show of unity that Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain, then his Republican opponent, staged in 2008 when they appe ared together.

Instead, Mr. Obama appeared with Michelle Obama, passing through a Marine color guard onto the South Lawn of the White House, where hundreds of staff members waited silently at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001. Three bells tolled, the president and first lady bowed their heads, then looked up and put hands over their hearts as a trumpeter played taps.

“This anniversary also renews our faith that even the darkest night gives way to a brighter dawn,” Mr. Obama said in a message sent out later by Twitter. “On a day when others sought to bring this country down, we choose to build it up with a National Day of Service & Remembrance.”

In Chicago at the same time, members of the local fire department similarly observed a moment of silence on the tarmac before Mr. Romney arrived. Mr. Romney had not been scheduled to participate but once he arrived, he went down a line and shook hands with the firefighters and medics.

Like Mr. Obama, he made no public remarks but he released a written statement beforehand. “On this most somber day, those who would attack us should know that we are united, one nation under God, in our determination to stop them and to stand tall for peace and freedom at home and across the world,” Mr. Romney said, adding his “profound gratitude” to the troops who have gone into battle since the attacks.

Other political figures released written statements honoring the fallen and the heroes who tried to save them. While they generally made no reference to the election campaign now under way, some of the statements carried an edge of the policy debate over defense spending and counterterrorism policies.

“Our national security must be a priority and we must protect against efforts that would undermine our ability to prevent or respond to another devastating attack,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican majority leader. “The United States should never forget and we must never quit.”

Ashley Parker contributed reporting from Chicago.



Tuesday Reading: Early Music Lessons Have Longtime Benefits

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.



The Early Word: Guessing Game

By JADA F. SMITH

In Today's Times

  • With less than two months until Election Day, fierce races have broken out in states where they were not expected, and control of the Senate is now anyone's guess, Jonathan Weisman and Jennifer Steinhauer report. Because of some campaign missteps and unexpected turns, Democrats appear to be in less danger of losing the Senate, while Republicans have a more difficult path to gaining the majority.
  • Despite the stakes in this year's Congressional elections, neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney has campaigned for House and Senate candidates, Helene Cooper and Jeremy W. Peters write. These days, it is every man for himself on the road to the White House.
  • President Obama raised more money than Mitt Romney did in August, underscoring reports that Mr. Obama had an uptick in support after his convention in a way that Mr. Romney did not, Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny report. But both campaigns agreed that post-convention readings could be ephemeral and that the race was likely to remain competitive until the end.
  •  Mitt Romney's pledge to guarantee access to health insurance for people with longstanding medical problems highlighted the difficulty of repealing the new health care law while keeping some of its popular features, Robert Pear and Abby Goodnough report. His proposal would apply only if those people had maintained coverage without a significant gap, which could exclude millions of Americans with medical problems.
  • Bill Clinton is hitting the campaign trail as the role model both sides claim to emulate, Peter Baker writes. Mr. Clinton's political drama has played out again and again o ver a quarter-century, and along the way he has reinvented himself as a bipartisan figure from a mythical era of across-the-aisle cooperation.

Around the Web

  • Politico: After Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio delivered the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, the obvious next step would be a run for national office, his iPhone told him.

Happenings in Washington

  • President Obama, Michelle Obama and White House staff members will gather on the South Lawn of the White House for a moment of silence to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Later, the president will attend a ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial, and in the afternoon he will visit wounded members of the military at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
  • Members of Congress will hold a Congressional Remembrance Ceremony on the front steps of the Capitol.
  • Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will hol d swearing-in ceremonies for United States ambassadors to Ghana and Serbia.