night everyone

****

President Barack Obama takes the stage during the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, May 12. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

****

‘no rabbit ears behind me’

CBS

Thank you ‘N’ 😉

‘running from his record’

Excellent, they’re eating each other alive:

Rick Santorum: “I greatly respect Governor Romney and admire many of his personal and professional accomplishments, but his work to institute the precursor to national socialized medicine is not one of them. Both Romneycare and Obamacare infringe upon individual freedom and exponentially increase the government’s healthcare cost burden.  Romneycare has, in fact, not made healthcare better or saved costs in Massachusetts. It’s done just the opposite.”

gates

Katie Couric’s interview with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates airs this Sunday, May 15 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Thanks Meta 😉

dude!

Vice President Joe Biden arrives at the Blair House in Washington, May 12, for a meeting on the budget

Reuters’s Jeff Mason threw in a question about where Biden got his shades. “I’ve been wearing these shades more years … probably than you’ve been alive,” Biden joked.

top cops

A ceremony to honor the National Association of Police Organizations TOP COPS in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 12

respect. empower. include. win.

Volunteer Hattie Hester answers the phone at the Obama 2012 campaign headquarters in Chicago on May 12. The campaign recently occupied about 50,000 square feet of office space in the Prudential Building.

Patrick McConville and Joseph Tennial work on signs at the Obama 2012 campaign headquarters

Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina talks with reporters at campaign headquarters

Inside Obama 2012’s Chicago HQ – see here

Thank you Dotser 😉

comic relief

Michael Tomasky (Daily Beast): I don’t know much in this life. I can’t tell you who’s going to win the NBA championship or when the Pakistani ISI will become a bulwark against extremism or what year Keith Richards’ lungs will finally cry uncle. But I do know this: Newt Gingrich will never be president of the United States.

… Far from having a serious chance of making it to the Oval Office, his actions (and inactions) have rendered himself less electable than Michele Bachmann – and for two main reasons.

The first is his legendary lack of discipline, which shows up in far more than his tendency to launch rhetorical projectiles from his mouth at regular intervals ….But that’s nothing compared to his second … his accomplishments as a public figure.

Here was the third most powerful figure in American politics, behind only the president and vice president, for several years. Surely he helped shepherd historic legislation into law? Accomplished something vaguely statesmanlike? Actually, no.

…Imagine a Gingrich who actually dedicated himself to broadening the GOP’s appeal and using his not inconsiderable intelligence toward the end of sowing the earth instead of scorching it as he has in so many ways, from the Tom-Foley-is-gay rumor (which emanated from his staff) to his pyrotechnic ravings against the Lower Manhattan mosque.

That Gingrich might actually have had a shot at being president. But that Gingrich would be “not Newt,” as would a Gingrich who refused to use his third wife as a prop to flog his conversion to right-wing social conservatism. “Not Newt” would be a serious contender. But plain old Newt? He’s nothing but comic relief.

Full article here

‘twisting himself in to a pretzel’

Thank you UT Austin Liberal 😉

Visit Multiple Choice Mitt here

‘why newt must run’

August, 2010 – Arianna bumps in to Newt & Callista Gingrich and Barbara Walters in Amalfi

This is a comically great find by Politicususa (see here) …. hey, 16 years later she’s got her wish!

Why Newt Must Run

by Arianna Huffington (Nov 27, 1995 in The Weekly Standard)

…Running for president would undoubtedly be the biggest gamble of Gingrich’s political career. And there is absolutely no self-interested reason for him to do it. He has said that he would run only if there were a clear moral imperative for him to do so….

….Precisely because Gingrich is right about the moral crisis the country is facing …. there is a moral imperative for him to fill the leadership vacuum and address the growing devastation.

…the Gingrich of November 1996 could be a far different, far more inspiring public figure. Gingrich may be a lightning rod, but he also embodies the revolution like no one else. He is its most articulate, self-confident, and unapologetic voice, and he burns with conviction that America can and will be a better place because of it …. he can rediscover the youthful realization that drove him to dedicate his life to politics in the first place: that at certain critical moments in history, effective leadership is all that stands between a civilization and its collapse.

There are times in life when risking everything is more prudent than protecting what you have. For Gingrich, this could be one of them. And if Gingrich fails to accept the mission, the mission does not go away. The hole in the heart of the Republican revolution remains, waiting for a leader to fill it.

See the full Weekly Standard article here and the Politicususa post here