President Obama greets people upon his arriving at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, Oct. 25
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Wednesday:
12:45 President Obama delivers remarks on college affordability
1:45 Departs Denver
5:10 Arrives at the White House
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Ooooops, watch Huntsman sink from 1% to zero in the GOP polls:
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Crikey, this is embarrassing. Professional Left, um, icon Cenk Uygur devotes a section of his own show to a Halloween mask of …. Cenk Uygur. Seriously. Ego much?
In time he might get around to mentioning what happened when he visited OWS:
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President Obama is introduced by Sen. Michael Bennett at a campaign event at the Pepsi Center in Denver
First Lady Michelle Obama with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a South Side Walgreens today in Chicago
Chicago Tribune – Read the text of the First Lady’s remarks here – thanks Jovie
First lady Michelle Obama holds up a worm from a compost pile as she visits Iron Street Urban Farm
First Lady Michelle Obama and Mayor Rahm Emanuel greet Newt Gingrich in Chicago
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Denver Post: A new statewide poll released today to coincide with President Obama’s trip to Colorado shows the first-term Democrat is more popular than any of his major GOP presidential challengers, particularly among unaffiliated voters and Hispanics, two crucial groups.
…. “At this point in the presidential race, President Obama is running against himself,” Project New West president Jill Hanauer said today. “At the same time, the Republican field is not reaching a majority of Coloradans due to their extreme views in very centrist state where voters vote for the person not the party and the policy vision, not a political ideology.”
…. PNW’s poll showed that 49% of likely Colorado voters view the President in a positive light, compared with 45% who have a negative opinion of him. Comparatively, Mitt Romney has a 40/38 favorable/unfavorable rating, and Rick Perry is underwater with a 29/38 rating.
Importantly, the President is even more popular with unaffiliated voters, who constitute a crucial 29% of the Colorado electorate. 54 percent of unaffiliated voters have positive feelings about the president, compared with 37% who view him negatively. Romney (38/37) and Perry (24/33) have similar ratings among Unaffiliateds as they do with the broader electorate.
The President also remains popular with Hispanic voters, who made up roughly 12% of the Colorado electorate in 2010. Obama has a 59/36 approval/disapproval rating among Colorado Hispanics, compared to 31/35 for Romney and 28/39 for Perry.
Go to Political Correction to see an enlarged version of the graphic – ‘A Timeline Of GOP Economic Sabotage’. Thank you BWD.
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OMG! Ex-pat GG briefly left Brazil to visit America for an appearance on Maddow to promote his shiny new book! Awesome! It was a complete love-in – Rachel even wrote the huggy blurb on the back of the book! And she nodded knowingly when he went on about the elites who rule America (but she ran out of time before she could ask him about the Koch brothers and GG’s work for their CATO Institute).
President Obama leaves Los Angeles International Airport en route to San Francisco
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee reaches out to greet President Barack Obama on his arrival at San Francisco International Airport
At a campaign event in San Francisco
Demonstrator Tommy Schneider, a Democrat from Bentwood, Calif., protests with a sign outside the hotel where President Obama was appearing in downtown San Francisco.
So, who’s Tommy going to vote for? Romney/Perry? 🙄
President Barack Obama sat down for a “Tonight Show” appearance with Jay Leno Tuesday, answering questions about everything from Moamar Ghadafi’s death to the war in Iraq, approval ratings and the current round of GOP debates.
In brief excerpts released by NBC some eight hours before the show was due to air, Obama appeared to draw the biggest laugh when, in response to a question about whether he was watching the Republican debates, he replied, “I’m going to wait until everybody’s voted off the island. Once they narrow it down to one or two, I’ll start paying attention.”
Obama received a standing ovation from the audience when he walked onstage for his fourth appearance on the Leno show, and his second as president.
with NBC producer Michelle Tasoff
Bryan Branly: After the show, I was lucky enough to be introduced to the President backstage. Jay told the President (referring to me), “That’s how you looked in college!” The President said, “Afros are hard work Jay.” I wish all you who follow these blogs could have been with me. It was a day to remember!
ABC: President Obama has crossed off 60 percent of his 2008 campaign promises from his to-do list, he told supporters in Los Angeles Monday as he asked them to help him check off the remaining items.
“I keep a checklist in my desk, and I kind of see, all right, I made a bunch of these promises during the campaign and let me see, yes, I got that done and that one, yes. No, that one’s not done yet. So we’ve got about 60 percent done in three years”….
The president listed health care reform, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and passing consumer protections among the promises that he has fulfilled.
“A lot of the things that we promised we’d do, we’ve done… we’ve made great progress, but we’ve got so much more work to do” …. Items left on the president’s agenda include comprehensive immigration reform, passing energy policy “that makes sense” and, of course, fixing the economy.
To check off the remaining 40 percent, the president said lawmakers will have to put politics aside. “Obviously, in Washington, the politics that I think people are hoping for is not what they’re getting. It’s still dysfunctional, it’s still perversely partisan. You still have folks who seem to be more interested in the short term and the party and elections than they are in the long term and the future and the next generation”….
Loop 21: Even though they can barely hear over the echo from their empty wallets, unemployed people are still shouting “Yes We Can!” apparently.
The Associated Press has found that President Obama still receives tons of support from the jobless, even as Republicans attempt to blame him for high unemployment and after blocking his jobs bill.
A study conducted by the AP shows that people living in the most economically distraught areas with the highest unemployment rates are still donating money to Obama’s re-election campaign. In fact, they are actually donating more than they were in 2008 during Obama’s first presidential campaign and right before the recession hit.
Detroit for example, even with a 14% unemployment rate, wrote more checks to the campaign than it did in 2007. Even though the amounts are smaller (Obama’s website allows people to donate as low as $10), they all still add up eventually.
….. his plan, like all flat-tax plans, is a gussied-up way of stealing money from the working and middle classes and handing it to the rich…..
…. whether Perry revives his candidacy or not, the real issue here is that a flat tax or something like it is getting ever so closer to becoming GOP dogma. Some years ago, it was just the messianic loons: Steve Forbes. Now the flat tax is mainstreaming within the GOP. Mitt Romney, who used to hate it, has recently opened up to the idea. It’s getting … respectable.
Simplicity is for simpletons: a handy slogan for the ruling class that wants more of your money. Don’t be that simple.
President Obama will record an interview with Jay Leno this morning – it won’t be shown until late night but NBC will release some excerpts in the afternoon
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President Obama leaves Air Force One upon his arrival in Los Angeles on Monday
LA Times: President Obama opened an aggressive Western fundraising swing Monday, closing out the day in Los Angeles with an appeal to supporters to prepare for a grueling reelection effort.
At an intimate fundraising dinner in Hancock Park, Obama spoke softly to a few dozen supporters who had paid $35,800 each to greet him.
“I’ve said this before — this election will not be as sexy as the first one,” the president said. “Back then it was still fresh and new. I didn’t have any gray hair. Everybody loved the ‘Hope’ posters and all that. This time it’s — we’ve got to grind it out a little bit. We’ve got to grind it out. But the cause is the same. And my passion is the same. And my commitment is the same.”
The gathering, at the home of movie producer James Lassiter and his wife, Mai, was one of six events Obama had planned in three days of stops in Nevada, California and Colorado, as he kept up a torrid fundraising pace that is far surpassing that of the GOP presidential field.
Two Los Angeles gatherings Monday were celebrity-flecked, with the first including actor Will Smith and former Laker Magic Johnson. The second and larger event was at the home of actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, with per-seat tickets starting at $5,000.
12:55 Delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee reception in Detroit
3:45 Discusses access to healthy food with mayors from around the country in Chicago
4:50 Delivers remarks at a Walgreens in Chicago and visits Iron Street Urban Farms with Mayor Rahm Emanuel
6:40 Delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee reception in Chicago
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Today the administration will announce plans to create jobs for veterans continuing on President Barack Obama’s efforts to boost the economy through a series of executive actions.
“While we will continue to work with Congress to bring up the American Jobs Act piece-by-piece, we will increase our focus on taking executive actions that fight for the middle class because the American people simply can’t wait for the Republican Congress to act. … Today, we are announcing two new initiatives that will help create jobs for veterans at community health centers and expand opportunities for veterans to become physician assistants,” a White House official said.
The initiatives will be announced during a conference call with reporters at 10 a.m. today with Matt Flavin, director of the White House Veterans, Military Families and Wounded Warrior Task Force; HRSA administrator Mary Wakefield; and president of the National Association of Community Health Centers, Tom Van Coverden.
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Steve Benen: …. Yesterday, President Obama unveiled a new, and almost certainly better, initiative as part of the White House’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign. The point to provide assistance to 1 million households, helping them refinance at today’s strikingly-low interest rates and lowering their mortgage payments.
There are, of course, concerns about the scope of the effort. It’s a modest program that won’t directly affect most of those underwater…. Still, Brian Beutler reports there are some experts who see cause for cautious optimism:
“Under the restrung HARP, I expect an additional 1.05 million [refinancings] through the end of 2012 and 1.6 million [refinancings] through the end of 2013 when the program ends,” said Moody’s top economist Mark Zandi in an email. “While HARP won’t live up to the initial expectations of 4-5 million in refinancings, the program will ultimately provide a meaningful boost to the broader economy as financially stressed households will benefit from much lower mortgage payments. It will also provide a bit of help to the housing market by forestalling some mortgage defaults.”
…. It’s a modest step, but at least it’s in the right direction. Coupled with other steps, we might even start to see some larger progress. It certainly beats watching Congress implode into an obstructionist mess.
The first part of the video is about Condaleeza Rice’s new book, but if you forward to three minutes in there’s good stuff on the madness of Herman Cain.
Eugene Robinson: For the clueless or cynical diehards who deny global warming, it’s getting awfully cold out there.
The latest icy blast of reality comes from an eminent scientist whom the climate-change skeptics once lauded as one of their own. Richard Muller, a respected physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, used to dismiss alarmist climate research as being “polluted by political and activist frenzy.” Frustrated at what he considered shoddy science, Muller launched his own comprehensive study to set the record straight. Instead, the record set him straight.
“Global warming is real,” Muller wrote last week in The Wall Street Journal.
Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the neo-Luddites who are turning the GOP into the anti-science party should pay attention.
…… It is the know-nothing politicians – not scientists – who are committing an unforgivable fraud.
The Obama Diary 
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