News Release:
5 Jun 2008
David Taylor Elected to Lincoln Institute Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc. announces the election of David N. Taylor, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association. "We are pleased to welcome David Taylor as a member of our board of directors," said Lowman S. Henry, Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute. "Dave has been involved with ..."
LI Surveys:
Spring 2008
Keystone Business Climate Survey Analysis
In the Tank:
Business leaders say state's economy has gotten worse
Pennsylvania business leaders report a gloomy assessment of the state's economy in the recent Spring 2008 Keystone Business Climate Survey conducted by the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc. In the most pessimistic result of the survey's 14-year history, 59% of the employers surveyed said the state's business climate has gotten worse over the last six months; just 6% say the Pennsylvania economy has improved.
14 Year Business Climate Survey Trend
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Business perceptions of the state's economy have trended negative for the past two years. However, the current survey shows a deepening ...
Survey Results
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Survey Analysis
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2008 Pennsylvania Charitable Organizations Survey Analysis
PA Non-Profits See Improved Effectiveness Despite Challenges
Non-profit charitable organizations provide a wide range of valuable services, often helping people at the most difficult points in their lives. Given that funding to non-profits is voluntary, it is important for the public to have a high degree of trust and confidence in such organizations. A new survey of Pennsylvania non-profit organizations finds those involved in the sector see room for improvement ...
Survey Results
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Survey Analysis
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Commentary:
Town Hall Commentary
The Long Road Back
What the GOP must do to get its 'groove' back
The Republican Party in Pennsylvania is in meltdown. Voters are abandoning the party in droves, and new registrants are opting for the Democratic Party by a two-to-one margin. In recent months, the former Republican bastions of Bucks, Montgomery, Center, and Dauphin counties have all gone "blue" as the GOP has been driven into minority status in each.
The question now is: what can be done to halt the slide?
GOP Ship Continues to Sink
Post-primary registration trends continue to favor Democrats
If the massive number of Republicans switching to the Democratic Party in the weeks before the Pennsylvania Primary was a political earthquake, what has been happening since is a strong aftershock. The desertion of the GOP by voters in bellwether counties is continuing.
Pre-primary conventional wisdom held that Republican voters were re-registering as Democrats to participate in the hotly contested election between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. GOP leaders predicted many, if not most, of the wayward Republicans would return to the fold after the primary. Reacting to the surge in party switches, the Republican State Committee and many county committees announced plans to entice their voters back into the party.
Early evidence suggests that is not happening. In fact ...
'Altogether Fitting and Proper'
A time to remember those who paid the ultimate price for freedom
As a young boy growing up in the coal patch town of Herminie, Pennsylvania the first holiday of the summer season was always an exciting one. Both my father and my mother were active in the local VFW post, so our family was always involved in preparations for the parade which would make its way from the VFW at one end of town to the fire hall at the other end.
This was not exactly a long distance, actually only a few blocks. But at that age marching with the scouts it seemed like quite a hike. The whole town gathered in front of the fire hall where red, white and blue wreaths adorned the town's memorial. There appropriate words were said about the sacrifices made for our freedom. And then ...
Somedays
The Trailblazing Candidate
I've been thinking about running for president. Since Pennsylvania's upcoming primary is going to be important for the first time in a generation and the two leading candidates are virtually deadlocked in the polls, I might just be the trailblazing candidate that breaks the stalemate, gains a momentum and ends up brokering the Democratic National Convention.
I think I've found the right niche too. In this race you need to be a trailblazer. Going up against the first female candidate and the first African American contender I've got to position my candidacy to stand out in the field and capture certain voters. I'll throw my hat in as the left handed, Italian/Irish with traces of German ancestry candidate for president ...
531 Miles of Old Road
Undoubtedly had Governor Rendell chosen to work in the private sector he would have been a salesman. Not just any salesman but the best in the business. Just look back in history. I was there in 1998 when he donned an elephant tie and the Democratic Mayor of Philadelphia sold the Republican National Committee on ...
Three Wise Men
Two thousand years ago it must have been tough to be a wise man. The wise man comes home one day and tells the family: "I've seen a star that will bring a messiah, so I'm hitching up my camel to chase it for the next six months." Then he joins up with two buddies and sets out across the Persian Dessert to look for a barn where the son of a poor carpenter is to be born who is supposed to save humanity. One wonders whether his wife was waiting for him when he did get home ...
Essays on Rebuilding America
Airline Reform
Thus far in 2008, five airlines have either filed for bankruptcy protection or for liquidation. An additional 10 airlines are on credit watch. Allegedly, the culprit is oil but are oil prices really the problem? The shortcomings in the industry are well known except to the airline industry apparently.
To blame oil prices for the demise of so many companies or September 11th or any other "act of God" would do terrible harm to an industry that needs to correct itself before more disasters follow. To act the victim in the marketplace is tantamount to admitting defeat. Solving the wrong problems lead only to more bankruptcies.
I became convinced years ago that the airline industry in the United States is a failed business model. Except for a company like ...
Personal Responsibility
Commentaries about home prices plunging the greatest amount in two decades, debtors defaulting on debt claiming mistreatment by lenders, and presidential candidates promising hope provided by the government are all so commonplace today.
For some reason, though, our problems always seem to be someone else's fault.
When a society becomes convinced that all their woes are the result of someone else's actions, ...
Rebuilding America – Social Security Reform
The mere mention of reforming social security raises fear in the hearts of so many Americans. As baby boomers start retiring in 2008, the legacy of years of neglect will become all too apparent.
The problems with social security are significant perhaps severe but they are not yet fatal! The longer it takes to enact a viable solution to the problem of funding and spending, the more severe the corrective action will be ...
As I See It
Rendell's Race Card Trashes Pennsylvanians
Governor Ed Rendell's chances of landing a top position in a future Democratic administration is slowly slipping away as the Hillary Clinton campaign locomotive is being surpassed by the Obama Express. Governor Rendell, hoping to land a top position in DC, endorsed Hillary Clinton shortly after her strong showing in the Nevada caucuses when the polls showed she was likely going capture the Democratic Presidential nomination. However, Rendell's grand plan seems to be unraveling as Barack Obama's recent string of victories has resulted in his pulling ahead of Hillary in the delegate count.
Like any desperate animal backed into a corner, and with his national political future in jeopardy, Rendell has gone on the attack. In the process, he has insulted the people of Pennsylvania and injected the race card into a campaign that has already seen its fair share of race baiting politics.
Rendell's recent statement that "many white conservatives won't vote for a black candidate" is ...
Tom Knox says he is in ... and he can win
We haven't even had our 2008 primaries in Pennsylvania and the jockeying for the 2010 gubernatorial race is already in full swing. If you were able to go to the festivities in New York this weekend, the evidence of this was abundantly clear, especially on the Democrat side. Conventional wisdom put names like Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, State Auditor General Jack Wagner and Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham as top tier contenders, with Dan Onorato looking like the early favorite among Rendell's old money apparatus. (All three of them held swanky receptions at PA society this weekend.) Wishful thinkers ...
Butt Out
For proof that the train of government paternalism is still running full steam ahead, one needn't look any further than the recent action of the Pennsylvania State Legislature.
Relegated to impotence and obscurity, "Harrisburg's finest" decided to finally get to work and tackle some legislation after barely working for the first six months of the year. Did they take up important issues such as taxes, right-to-work legislation, ending rampant lawsuit abuse, or others of great need?
Nope.
Avoiding vital issues ...
