night everyone

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden head toward the Oval Office Private Dining Room for lunch, June 8, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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See you tomorrow 😉

‘the dirty trick that launched anthony weiner’s career’

Steve Kornacki (Salon): …if this does end up being the end for Anthony Weiner’s public career, it might not be quite the injustice it seems like – at least if you know how his career began.

Twenty years ago, Weiner’s opening came when the City Council was radically expanded … One of the new districts, the 48th, would be in Southern Brooklyn. It was a neat match for Weiner … there was no incumbent, and the population was heavily Jewish. He jumped in the race.

He was not the favorite … as the all-important Sept. 10 Democratic primary approached, the consensus was that he’d come up short…

It was at this point that Weiner’s campaign decided to blanket the district with leaflets attacking his opponents. But these were no ordinary campaign attacks: They played the race card, and at a very sensitive time. They were also anonymous.

Just weeks earlier, the Crown Heights riot – a deadly, days-long affair that brought to the surface long-standing tension between the area’s black and Jewish populations – had played out a few miles away from the 48th District…

It was just days after order had been restored that Weiner’s campaign distributed its anonymous leaflets, which linked (Democrat rival) Adele Cohen – whose voters he was targeting in particular – to Jesse Jackson and David Dinkins, who was then New York’s mayor. It is hard to imagine two more-hated political figures in the 48th District at that moment … The leaflets urged voters to “just say no” to the “Jackson-Dinkins agenda” that Cohen supposedly represented. At City Hall, Dinkins held up the flier and branded it “hateful.”

….Weiner finished in first place … only after the ballots were counted did he admit that he’d been behind the leaflets, claiming that “We didn’t want the source to be confused with the message.”…

… who knows where Weiner would be today if he hadn’t made such a dark appeal to racial hostility days after a notorious riot?

…..Is it unfair if he loses his political future because of a scandal as dumb as this one? Sure. But it’s also not exactly fair that he ever made it this far.

Full article here

good luck, jonathan

President Barack Obama meets with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, June, 8, in the Oval Offic

re-post: moneygall memories (say hello to stephen neill & henry healy in the comments)

The quality of the video is woeful but I’m not sure how long the original will stay on the RTE site, so I thought I better record it – see the much better version here

oh newt

Greg Sargent: The Very Serious Newt continues to make it up on the fly. Sincere question: Is Gingrich still running for president? Does anyone know?

arise auburn!

President Barack Obama receives an Auburn University football jersey and helmet during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House honoring the 2010 NCAA BCS Football Champion football team

Look who’s back at the White House:

Ethan Gibbs has grown!

President Obama tries to put an Auburn University football helmet on the son of former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Ethan

October, 2008

Bumpety bump:

chillin’

First dog Bo finds a shady spot on the South Lawn of the White House, June 8

Looks like Bo was exhausted after the previous day’s meetings:

Kalpen Modi (White House): Yesterday afternoon, I had the privilege of leading a meeting with 10 incredible young Americans who had participated in the “100 Youth Roundtables” Initiative and came to Washington….

….Halfway through the meeting, President Obama dropped by (with Bo in tow), and after meeting everyone, took a seat and talked about a range of topics: from the economic situation to climate change, education, incarcerated youth, Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, the Social Work and Reinvestment Act, and civic engagement….

More here

Thanks Debz!

‘let detroit go bankrupt’

Jennifer Granholm on The Last Word

investing in the future

President Barack Obama looks over a hybrid car engine during a visit to the Northern Virginia Community College

hop, skip, jump

First Lady Michelle Obama runs an obstacle course with Maria Valles, a student at CentroNia bilingual child care center, during a tour of the center in Washington on June 8

First lady Michelle Obama wears shoe covers as she enters a room of ‘crawlers’