****
11:15 AM: PBO hosts Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and President Felipe Calderon of Mexico for the North American Leaders’ Summit.
12:00 PM: Attends a working lunch with Harper and Calderon.
1:15 PM: Holds a joint press conference with Harper and Calderon.
****
USA Today: President Obama has opened the first significant lead of the 2012 campaign in the nation’s dozen top battleground states, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, boosted by a huge shift of women to his side.
In the fifth Swing States survey taken since last fall, Obama leads Republican front-runner Mitt Romney 51%-42% among registered voters just a month after the president had trailed him by two percentage points.
The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney’s support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group. Romney’s main advantage is among men 50 and older, swamping Obama 56%-38%.
…. In the poll, Romney leads among all men by a single point, but the president leads among women by 18.
More here
****
David Javerbaum (NYT): A Quantum Theory of Mitt Romney. The recent remark by Mitt Romney’s senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom that upon clinching the Republican nomination Mr. Romney could change his political views “like an Etch A Sketch” has already become notorious. The comment seemed all too apt, an apparent admission by a campaign insider of two widely held suspicions about Mitt Romney: that he is a) utterly devoid of any ideological convictions and b) filled with aluminum powder.
…. according to the latest theories, the “Mitt Romney” who seems poised to be the Republican nominee is but one of countless Mitt Romneys, each occupying his own cosmos, each supporting a different platform, each being compared to a different beloved children’s toy but all of them equally real, all of them equally valid and all of them running for president at the same time, in their own alternative Romnealities, somewhere in the vast Romniverse.
And all of them losing to Barack Obama.
More here
****
Rupert Cornwell (UK Independent): Obamacare is in the hands of the unelected – The Supreme Court has the power to trump Congress and consign to history the US’s boldest attempt at universal healthcare.
….. If the so-called “individual mandate” is rejected, then the whole financial edifice of Obamacare comes crashing down. With the stroke of a judicial pen, unelected judges would have voided the most important piece of health legislation since the Medicare and Medicaid Acts in 1965, and destroyed the boldest effort yet to give America what is taken for granted in every other industrial country: universal health coverage.
…. The biggest casualty of all, however, could be the reputation of the Supreme Court itself … it would be shown once and for all as just another player, albeit a mightily powerful one, in the partisan warfare that has brought the American political system almost to the point of dysfunction. Maybe, that will induce one conservative justice at least to step back from the brink on Obamacare. But don’t bet on it.
More here
****
This. Just. Cracks. Me. Up.
****
****
Tuesday: PBO will deliver remarks at the AP Luncheon during the ASNE Convention.
Wednesday: PBO will host an Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House. Christian leaders from across the country will join the President at this breakfast for a time of prayer, reflection, and celebration of Easter. Also on Wednesday, the President will sign the STOCK Act, which makes clear that Members of Congress are subject to the same insider trading laws that apply to everyone else. This was legislation the President called on Congress to pass in his 2012 State of the Union Address.
Thursday: PBO will sign the JOBS Act, which includes key initiatives the President proposed last fall to help small businesses and startups grow and create jobs.
Friday: PBO will deliver remarks at the White House Forum on Women and the Economy. Later, the President and the First Lady will mark the beginning of Passover with a Seder at the White House with friends and staff.
****
Morning everyone 😉
The Obama Diary 
Morning all
🙂 🙂 🙂
Morning amk! I found a pile of stuff in my spam folder this morning offering violin and piano lessons – possibly the strangest spam ever.
Morning Chips. It is about playing small violins, you should forward it to mehmney campaign.
😆 Will do amk!
Morning Symmetry, morning everyone 😉
Morning Chips
Morning Symmetry and congratulations on your ‘perky’ start to the day. 😆
Morning, VC…thank you!
GM folks.
Good morning fam!
It’s the one and only Collegekay! A gazillion congratulations again, you legend!
Thanks Chips. It wouldn’t have happened without you! 😉
Are you going to be leaping out of your seat every time your phone rings now? You need to talk to Donna to prepare your heart for this excitement 😆
yes, lol. She told me I probably won’t get the call for a while but to always check my email so I’m not out in the mall somewhere getting caught-off-guard like her. 😆
Congratulations again collegekay, when are your classes over? Hope you don’t get the call in the middle of an exam, keep your phone on high vibrate.
Congratulations, collegekay! So happy for you!
Good morning and Congratulations! CK!!
#PRESSON
Congratulations, Kay! Can’t wait until you give us all the details when President Obama calls you.
Good morning!
Helloooooooooooooooooooo TrumpDog!!
Good Morning Chips and TOD. Monday was made even better watching Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel decimate Joe Scarborough and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R) for the second time about ObamaCare (still love how the Obama 2012 team reclaimed that term and left the GOP floundering). It was brilliant to watch. The Obama 2012 team has to use Dr. Zeke on the stump – if they aren’t already and I tweeted them – to go around the country and talk to college students, older voters, women, men etc about the wonderful benefits of ACA. He was fiery and was on point with fact after fact after fact. It was funny watching Joe sputter in rage and get flustered. For about 10-13 minutes he held everyone spell bound. Twitter went nuts. It was great.
Wonderful! Did he have Joe stuttering and yelling? Lol
Morning UT – ooooh, I must track down that video, sounds excellent!
One of these mornings Joe is going to explode. Good morning folks.
Hope so. Good morning!
Former President Bill Clinton, who used to teach constitutional law, has a list of cases he seems surprised the Obama administration didn’t cite in its arguments defending the health care law before the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
“It seemed to me that the conservative justices were just accepting as a matter of course that there was a serious constitutional question here,” the former president said, “and that they didn’t make the plaintiffs, the people that want to strike the law down, prove their case.”
“Nobody asked, for example, do they want to overturn a case called Wickard v. Filburn in 1942,” Clinton said. “Where in the beginning of World War II, where we were still coming out of the Depression, a farmer was told and the Supreme Court upheld the ability of the federal government to limit his ability to grow food on his own farm for personal consumption. Because they said it affected the aggregate amount of food consumed in interstate commerce and the price of food.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/president-clinton-imagines-the-cases-he-would-have-cited-before-the-supreme-court-to-defend-health-care/
monday morning qb’ing. stfu, bill.
Exactly.
So agree amk, sit down billygoat and STFU…..gawd, his ego is unbearably out of control….what they should have done, what he would do, how they should do it, what he did…..go away. Have the common decency to be like other EX-presidents and stay out of the limelight….jeeez!
Oh apologies, Good Morning TOD and congrats collegekay!
THIS! Bill Clinton needs to get off the stage, especially since he was as quiet as church mouse during Dubya’s eight years of destruction of this country. He needs to get over the fact that his wife lost to the PRESIDENT! That’s what mature people do.
So Jovie, any news on march fundraising numbers yet ?
I thought I will start early this time. 🙂
LOL!!!!!! That’s just mean.
Great. It’s always terribly helpful when someone tells you what you should have done. He’s a former president and the husband of the SOS, he could have picked up the phone and talked to anyone in the administration at any time. So, thanks for nothing , Bill.
He’s also a narcissistic a$$hole who couldn’t get healthcare passed during his own presidency so why would anyone ask him for help. The only thing he’s truly good at is chasing women.
Well L3, I probably would have used another noun, but I’m with you. 😉
‘he could have picked up the phone and talked to anyone in the administration at any time’
Now, JG, don’t pretend to be naive. YOU KNOW this would not have resulted in any noticeable publicity.! 😉 😉
Exactly, offering counsel in private deprives him of his insatiable need for attention. Oh, and I forgot to add he’s also very good at running his damn mouth.
THIS
“Nodding at L3″….
Gooooooooood Morning…Chipssssssss….and TOD Fam…
Shut up Bill.
See, I told you so. The former president is back to his true self. He will have a lot more to say right up to election time. He is a snake in the grass.
Setting the stage for a ‘Buffett Rule’ showdown
By Steve Benen
==================================
In case this isn’t obvious, the fight has sweeping implications. For the Senate, Democrats are eager to put Republicans, especially vulnerable GOP incumbents like Scott Brown and Dean Heller, on the spot, testing their willingness to fight for tax loopholes that benefit millionaires and billionaires.
But there’s also the presidential race, in which the likely Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, is extremely wealthy thanks to a successful career as a vulture capitalist. Romney takes full advantage of the existing loopholes, allowing him to pay a 13.9% rate on the millions he receives every year from the firm at which he no longer works.
The question for congressional Republicans, then, is whether they support tax fairness or whether they want to keep allowing Mitt Romney to pay a much lower tax rate than America’s middle class.
===================================
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/02/10980218-setting-the-stage-for-a-buffett-rule-showdown
I think that ad about big oil is great, short and to the point.
agreed. Morning all!
morning TOD! hope everyone has a great monday (or as well as can be expected ;-))
Women boost Obama in swing states
By Steve Benen
===============================
Campaigning in Wisconsin yesterday, Mitt Romney seemed well aware of the recent polling trend. “We have work to do,” the Republican said, “to make sure we take our message to the women of America.”
The available evidence, however, suggests American women have already heard that message, and they’re not especially impressed.
.
.
I won’t pretend to be a master political strategist, but I’ll go out on a limb here and argue that trying to restrict contraception access, mandating medically-unnecessary ultrasounds, vowing to get rid of Planned Parenthood, and enabling Rush Limbaugh may not have been the smartest election-year strategy for the GOP.
===============================
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/02/10980698-women-boost-obama-in-swing-states
Mitt is beyond clueless. He has nothing to say to women–zero. He’s already on record about not funding Planned Parenthood and supporting an employer’s right to deny contraceptives and I have not heard a single objection from him about disagreeing with the forced rape vaginal probes. So what’s his message–“I’m a rich misogynist from a long tradition of regarding women as subordinates of men and I fully intend to do everything in my power to make sure women know their place.” Now that’s got the smell of win all over it.
And yet, reading some of the articles this morning, Romney and the gop think he can somehow change his message for the GE and women will fall for it.
Succinct, Jackie! 🙂
You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
The media knows that Mitt Romney is a weak presidential candidate, so they are desperate to try and prop him up any way they can. The latest focus on Ann Romney as some secret weapon that the Democrats should be worried about is really fascinating. Are they saying that Ann Romney is in a better position than her husband to explain away the Republican Party disdain for women? Sorry MSM, you can’t un-ring that bell. The Republican Party “War On Women” is real. You can try your “Look At That Shiny Object” crap all you want, but it will not change the fact that the Republican Party record on women’s rights is morally repugnant.
You have to read this LOL
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/04/02/okay-now-youre-just-making-this-up-politico/
https://twitter.com/#!/___Chips___/status/186819052293992450
🙄
Always good to see GOPolitico is on the job!!!
OMG, Chips…I am laughing so hard I’m choking. You are so deliciously cruel with your humor.
😆
Have you guys read the article on Politico? Well I read the first 13/4 pages and the overwhelming message? Mitt can’t stand on his own merit.
//
I think you try to do both, but we don’t want a situation where they’re apart for three weeks,” Tagg Romney, the couple’s eldest son, said in an interview.
“You can tell when she’s off the trail for too long — my dad has got some sharper edges. He’s a little less patient. … She’ll say, ‘Oh, don’t sweat it, you don’t need to worry about that,’ and distract him. We always call her the dad stabilizer. He needs to be with her.”
//
There’s more. Every line virtually says he can’t do much without her- a real two for one if he gets in! Is the plan for her to stabilize him in White House briefings too? I wonder if the campaign bright lights read that article before they okayed it?
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74718.html#ixzz1qtzJkZWM
LH, I can’t count the number of people who said Cindy McCain was a gorgeous woman who would prove a great asset to her husband and be a truly gracious first lady and look how that turned out. Also I can never forget the fact that Ann Romney dishonored her father by allowing him to be converted to Mormonism after his death even though he was an avowed atheist. I think speaks volumes about her character. And where was she when the family dog was put on the roof. Does she even have a voice, or is she Willard’s little “me too”?
She’s Willard’s humanizer. She just never bothered to humanize him during the dog incident because he wasn’t ‘running for office for pete’s sake’.
//
She routinely sits in on strategy sessions — but saves her suggestions for private conversations with senior staff or her husband. When she declared to an audience last month that she had “decided no more debates” — few who know her thought she was kidding. When the campaign was mulling over how to better humanize the candidate last December, she jumped into the discussion, telling staff, “I can do that.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74718_Page3.html#ixzz1qu2nESeP
She needs to humanize herself first.
Everything is relative, Cha. 😉 No doubt compared to Willard Anne’s quite, quite ‘human’. I found the part of the article I read very interesting in that both the campaign staff and the son who spoke were saying directly and indirectly that Willard can’t function for long without her. This suggests to me that they are well aware that something isn’t ‘right’ with the guy, but his money covers all.
WOMEN FOR OBAMA
http://www.barackobama.com/women/accomplishments
these are great LH. I tweeted them and then sent them to my local OFA – I’d like to get something going for women here in our senate district.
HEALTH AND ECONOMIC RIGHTS FOR WOMEN aka “HERvotes”
===================================================
About HERvotes
In recognition of the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, and the anniversary of the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, a coalition of women’s organizations, representing millions of women, announced plans to counter the attacks on women’s economic and health security through a new multi-organization effort, HERvotes. The goal is to mobilize women voters in 2012 around preserving women’s Health and Economic Rights (HER rights.)
The top priorities of HERvotes are to educate and engage more women to use their voices and their votes to urge lawmakers who seek to represent them to:
Stop the attacks on historic advances for women;
Preserve successful policies, such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act;
Respect women’s contribution to the economy; and
Act on jobs at livable wages and equal pay for our families’ economic security.
This multi-organization effort is coming together to harness the growing power of women in the United States. Women now comprise half of the entire paid labor force, and are essential contributors to the economy, both as workers and consumers. Women are also an increasingly powerful political force. According to the Center for American Women in Politics, women had a higher turnout rate in 2008 than men, with 60.4 percent of women turned out to vote compared to 55.7 percent of men. This gender gap held true across all ages and races.
====================================================
http://hervotes.org/
(h/t Linda H. http://www.whatisworking.com/)
This is a good organization. I wonder why you can log on or anyway to gain membership? I only see tweets which is fine but not all women tweet. Maybe it’s a new organization just getting off the ground?
I mean can’t log on or gain membership..it’s early in SoCal….I am just waking up.
Morning! Happy Monday…
Moooooooooorning Desertflower 😉
Good Morning, Chips! You’re spunky this morning 🙂 !
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/gallup-republican-voter-enthusiasm-falls
Wonder why? !
More from TP
The wave of enthusiasm that swept dozens of Republicans into Congress in 2010 appears to be ebbing. The New York Times reports that Republican turnout across the first 28 primary states is lower than in 2008, despite the prolonged nomination battle and a higher number of registered GOP voters.
Good morning TOD!
Couple of reflections …
#AmericaThisIsNotATest
#LandslideDEMS2012
Let them hear it loud and clear, thank you bobfr!
Speaking of torture….http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/juan-cole-polish-pm-admits-they-tortu
As a result of a Polish newspaper article published in February, the Polish PM is admitting that his country’s security forces helped torture al-Qaeda suspects for the U.S.:
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk is now more or less admitting what has long been suspected: The Bush administration established a secret CIA prison in Poland and had Polish security officials help torture al-Qaeda suspects there.
These steps were unconstitutional in Poland on two grounds: first, high Polish officials surrendered sovereignty over Polish territory to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Second, torture is forbidden in Poland. In addition, it contravenes European Union conventions and treaties.Poland had only escaped the grip of the Soviet Union in 1989, and so its democracy was a fledgling one. For the Bush administration to seduce its high officials into committing torture risked permanently marring its politics and undermining that democracy. Polish human rights workers have been deeply critical of Soviet-era torture, and to be put in the position of having to acknowledge this practice in their own country weakens their moral standing and besmirches the name of those tortured in the Stalinist era. Waterboarding and extreme stress techniques are also illegal in US law and practice.
Thank you df …
#PRESSON
Good for you, Bob. You always tell it straight.
Thank you Pamela, df & Jacquie,
BTW – not to overstate the obvious but what Ryan, Boehner & Cantor did last week on their ‘budget vote’ is superfluous at best and likely violates the Budget Control Act of 2011. The BCA is law, not merely a House or/and Senate resolution. It set the budget structure for fiscal years 2012 AND 2013.
#AmericaThisIsNotATest
#PRESSON
In the insanity that is Arizona, a smile…Two months after she stepped down from Congress, Gabrielle Giffords is still holding on to nearly $1 million in her congressional campaign account, leaving the possibility open that the former Democratic House member from Arizona will run for a House or Senate seat again.
YIPPEE!
G’day y’all!
Good Morning Chips and TODville! After hanging around for—e–ver last night, I’m now having to prop my body up this morning. A sensible person would have slept in of course, but lying under the covers for three hours now, AND avoiding the laptop, hasn’t brought sleep back so I’ve given in.
Have a MAH-VE-LOUS MONDAY, you all! 😆 😆
Is this you VC?
Well, she looks very comfortable and cute, so I have to say ‘no’. Of course if I say ‘yes’ Hf might adopt me. ‘Yes or no’, I’m in a quandary.
thinkprogress Zimmerman’s father admits to “confusion” regarding his son’s version of the events. Says it’s “a little bit cloudy” thkpr.gs/H9AmCN
7 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
thinkprogress In the NYT, Zimmerman’s father admits he was present when police were questioning his son the day after the shooting thkpr.gs/H9AmCN
8 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite
thinkprogress “There were Trayvon-like dudes with their pants down” – Zimmerman neighbor Frank Taaffe on starting neighborhood watch thkpr.gs/H9AmCN
9 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite
Here comes more spin. “Confusion”??? “A little bit cloudy”?
Oh Suki, Suki now! :-). The spin, the spin … There is no longer a doubt in my mind that the former judge is a republican!
No doubt! Why was he in there when the police were questioning his son? I’m pretty sure that his son ISN’T a minor!! Did the police, daddy, and George hatch this scenario???
Well, they have certainly had enough time and CONSULTATION, and media help, to hatch as many parts of it as they think will do the job. The irony is that they have done so poor a job to date. I guess, confident in their ‘contacts’, they never expected such scrutiny, and they forgot the old saying that liars have to have good memories. I don’t know why, but from the first time I heard that Trayvon was found face down I’ve been thinking that George strikes me as the kind who would bang his own head and bloody his own nose if he thought it would benefit him – anything in the cause to prevent another @@@@ from getting away. I still haven’t been able to get clear in my own mind if he shot him in the back. I’m struggling with the mental picture that the teenager would have fallen backward if George had been in front of him, and if they had been in a struggle then wouldn’t he have fallen on George. {Oh, why am I going there this morning? I’ve been trying not to discuss this because the thoughts are so enraging. To shoot an unarmed teenager of any colour for merely walking is just heart wrenching to contemplate.}
I know, vc…I think many of us have the very same questions and concerns as you do. Hopefully the DOJ will be able to answer those questions. The Sanford PD and their spin meisters have corrupted themselves and deserve to be fired for their actions. Stay tuned.
Why were they questioning him the day after the shooting instead of immediately? I guess they had to wait for Daddy to be there.
Lawrence O’Donnell reported last week that Zimmerman’s father is in fact a registered Republican.
It’s deep and dirty! The State Attorney allegedly left his home on Sunday night – the night of the shooting – to meet with the Stanford police. Mmm… As Attorney Crump said, “Why did he get out of his bed and go to the police station that night and overrule the lead investigator?”. Why indeed.
Also, this Zimmerman has been very lucky with the law… Fighting with a police and domestic violence??? No time served? Let’s just say it must be nice to call a judge your dad!
Just ANOTHER reason to be furious! Justice FOR ALL, not just the well connected!
Good morning df,
They may be confused, but we are not. George is a murderer and his father and other family members are, at a minimum, obstructing justice.
#PRESSON
Truth!! We are clear as a bell!
Zimmerman’s father was ‘present’ when he was being questioned by the police?
What is he, 12?
Exactly my thought,57. Sounds MORE than fishy now…
“Trayvon-like dudes”? Excuse me, Frank Taaffe, every one of those “dudes” is a human being with a soul, a unique history and the potential for a great future. If you had any kind of basic religious training in your life, you may have heard that ALL of us are made in God’s image, or did you fall asleep during that lesson, Frank. You are rotting in your own hatred, Mr. Traaffe, and you, like Trayvon and the rest of of mankind, have only one soul to lose. And guess what–they’re all equal.
I am so angry. Why is a grown ass man being questioned with his father present? He is not a minor so why bring in the father? Something is not right and the truth is coming out little by litte. After 75 days they can’t charge him so “they ” better hurry up and do what’s right. That’s all I have to say. Remember 1968?
Funny.
http://www.occasionalplanet.org/2012/04/01/scotus-3×5-gate-reveals-justices-thinking-on-health-reform/
BLESSINGS EVERYONE…MY BROTHER IS HERE TILL WEDNESDAY MORNING SO I’M NOT ON THE PUTER…WILL CHECK BACK LATER! GOD BLESS OUR PBO!..:)
Have a good time with your brother, Sue.
WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton says he believes President Barack Obama can win re-election if he can persuade voters he steadied a shaky economy.
Clinton tells ABC’s “Good Morning America” he believes likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney will have a difficult time reconciling positions he’s taken during the primary season with what he’ll say against Obama in the fall.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-president-clinton-says-obama-can-argue-he-put-a-floor-under-the-2008-09-recession/2012/04/02/gIQA3eUcqS_story.html
Old Bill hogging the airwaves…
Bill Clinton is making me tired. Another person who doesn’t understand the meaning of retiring.
THISSSSSSSSSSSSS!!
Bill ===> see dubya.
Bill Clinton may think he’s helping, but he is so self centered, he really needs to keep his mouth shut. He should be the one telling everyone that PBO saved the economy, not saying what POTUS needs to do.
Not only that, but he told Luke, that he did not buy the whole etch a sketch thing.
He goes subtle, and it kills us Obama supporters.
He will after Myth becomes the nominee. President Clinton was Secretary Clinton to be the next (me, too) President of the United States, for that to happen, President Obama must win re-election. I’ve had my issues with President Clinton but I believe regardless of how it comes out of his month, he was President Obama to win re-election, too. Folks have to remember President Clinton is one of the best (President Obama is the other, one) at boxing the opponent into a corner that they can’t come out of. Watch what I tell ya.
“wants,” sorry
Why was he so quiet during the Bush presidency? Why does he always second guess President Obama while claiming to support him? Yes, I supported and worked hard for Bill Clinton, but I think he needs to know that he had his time and any advice he needs to give President he should do it behind the cameras. Otherwise, he makes himself the center of the story. I don’t care how good he is, he needs to stop making himself the story. He did that during the Bush years, why can’t he do it again?
My last sentence did not come out right. What I meant to say was President Clinton was silent during the Bush years and he should the same during the Obama presidency; unless President Obama asks him to to speak for him. For some who is supposedly so good at framing, he should know better not to give the corrupt media snippets that he knows would be used to attack the President. He did that with his 14th Amendment bullshit during the debt ceiling crisis.
Oh Really? Then he needs to pay attention and then come back and make some comments.
He can’t go on an interview show and when they ask him questions keep his mouth shut. Could he phrase it better? Possibly but I don’t see a whole lot of harm in what he said. If the President thought he was damaging I suspect he would have told Guggenheim to leave him out of the film and his staff not to include him in upcoming campaign events.
And I give him credit for encouraging Paul Ryan earlier this year to keep chatting up his idiotic plan. That has been a boon for us.
Somebody please get Slick Willie a girlfriend so he can get a life and STFU about what POTUS is or isn’t doing.
Bill Clinton has always been about Bill Clinton. Not saying that I wouldn’t take him ahead of any Republican they would throw out, but he knows that his legacy is being overshadowed by Barack Obama, and its making him insecure like hell. It would have been ok if Hillary did that, because she was still his wife, and thus he would have indirectly received credit. But since Barack Obama is in office, he can’t take credit because he didn’t endorse him in the primaries. I will always say that Bill was a better President than all of the Republican Presidencies, but the man has an ego the size of the QM2. Anyone who sleeps around in Arkansas, then after he gets elected, sleeps around has that big of an ego.
Here he goes again. Hust can’t shut his trap.
Seems to me this guy is always making his statements after the fact, like a day late and a dollar short…. Has been, been there… Go home now.
THIS^^^^^^^^
You’ve got to love PBO’s foreign policy team. They delivered a huge smack down to Mitt Romney and his jingoistic foreign policy clap trap. Then they signed their names at the end of the Op-Ed. Brilliant!
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/28/an_open_letter_to_mitt_romney_explain_your_national_security_ideas
That was a great read, ut 🙂 Brilliant is an understatement.
That was a super article/letter. Of course, the Rpmney campaign will ignore it. ANd the fact is, thanks to our wonderful media, most Americans don’t realize all the President has accomplished in foreign affairs. I would love to see this basically as a major print ad.
Rachel Maddow did an absolutely scathing segment on Mitt Romney’s foreign policy weaknesses last week. She interviewed David Corn the author of “Showdown”. It was a fascinating and enlightening discussion. Pay close attention to the (weak and curious) response from the Romney team when President Obama’s campaign asked for more of his tax returns. It’s very telling and makes them look like amateurs.
Corn on Maddow: Why Romney’s Latest Obama Attack Won’t Work
By David Corn
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/04/corn-maddow-why-romneys-latest-obama-attack-wont-work
POUNCING ON HOT MIC INCIDENT BACKFIRES
Team Romney pushes its luck with hot-mic story
By Steve Benen
======================
Late Friday, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul, responding to calls for the former governor’s still-hidden tax returns, pushed her luck in a written statement:
“Obama should release the notes and transcripts of all his meetings with world leaders so the American people can be satisfied that he’s not promising to sell out the country’s interests after the election is over.”
This really wasn’t a smart thing to say.
.
.
If the Democrats’ goal is to make Romney look like an unprepared rookie, not ready for the big kids’ table when it comes to foreign policy, the Romney campaign calling for the release of private transcripts makes the Dems’ job easier. There are plenty of reasons to question Romney on international affairs — he seems painfully out of his depth on the subject — and self-inflicted wounds won’t help.
=======================
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/02/10982679-team-romney-pushes-its-luck-with-hot-mic-story
Thanks for the link, Ladyhawke..that was a good update.
Thanks UT for sharing this. As you said, It was a “brilliant” response. Sadly the so called mainstream 4th Estate will not expose this to a wider audience because it will undermine their meme that the two parities are the same.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/03/ta_032912.html
Yet again, big money is buying what it wants in Wisconsin and across this country, with the aim of squeezing the poor and middle class even further out of the political process now and into the future. That is the true story of the 2012 election. The fact that money is increasingly able to dominate our politics, culture, and society would not have been possible without the tacit complicity of the so-called liberal media, which has failed and continues to fail to put such stories at the center of their political narrative where it belongs.
Amen! Good read about money buying elections. Thank you SC. Thank you media for NOT doing your job.
That is the only thing that scares me about Robney, his Super Pacs will have 100s of millions(including Roves group).
The airwaves will be a draw, but we need to get our message out, they don’t.
That is why it will be close.
The President is going to have a lot of money along with something Romney ain’t got. Millions of boots on the ground.
Big money can’t compete with a 7.3 unemployment rating tending downwards.
Nice one Lorraine.
Thank you, love. 🙂 It’s true, too. I guess Myth will be focusing on Foreign Policy, now. LANDSLIDE!!!!
It won’t help him. It could have in 2008, but not now. The only people who will fall for his lies are the idiots who are going to vote for him anway. Romney can’t beat PBO, only event can. Let’s pray for quiet 6 months.
Exactly.
Big money will buy votes when your opponent is Frothy Santorum, but it will not work against President Obama! Romney is in for the shock of his life.
Meg Whitman & Carli Fiorina had millions too and it did not work for them in California. They were in my opinion, two unpopular and snobby people who could not connect with voters…just like Robme. The more you see and hear Robme, the more people don’t like him.
That’s the absolute Truth, jojothecat! Now lets hope people in other states will do exactly what we did in California when we rejected the attempt by the multimillionaires to buy elections.
tweeted
Oil down to 1.02! Yet, gas keeps going up. This is all crap.
Gas has gone down in Knoxville area in the past week. From avg. of $3.78 to $3.69 avg.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-rights-stealthy-coup/2012/04/01/gIQAZlBjpS_story.html
If our nation’s voters want to move government policy far to the right, they are entirely free to do so. But those who regard themselves as centrist have a moral obligation to make clear what the stakes are in the current debate. If supposed moderates refuse to call out the new conservatism for the radical creed it has become, their timidity will make them complicit in an intellectual coup they could have prevented.
Robney is up 7 as of yesterday. So, if this trend continues…
Hope sick rantorum kicks coreless mehmney’s weaselly butt. Pun intended.
Ditto!!!
🙂
https://twitter.com/#!/BorowitzReport/status/186816476223770624
Love it!!!!!!!!!! 😆
I love that Gender Gap
! Just wait ’til the women candidates that are running for the House and Senate get going — that gap is gonna increase.
I don’t get that god hates taxes toon. Anyone ?
I’d love to know who the guy in the pic is, but it doesn’t say at the link. But it never fails to amuse that these bible-wielding right wing nutjobs actually do believe God hates taxes! As for the cuddly creature on the right …. I have no clue. But his face left me weepin’!
Specially since Jesus specially endorsed taxes. “Render unto Caesar” was specifically concerned with the topic of taxes.
I’m scratching my head at all the trash on the sidewalk, suspect the critter is meant to be a post-apocalypse symbol. Very weird portrayal of the First Amendment.
If you read to the end of the comments, the guy with the ‘God Hates Taxes” sign comments. It is a bit of performance art – he doesn’t appear to be a teapartiest. There is also a link to an article by a Canadian journalist who was going around interviewing people at the rally including ‘Taxes’ guy. It’s very funny in an understated way.
one of the commenters said he must have gotten it wrong and meant god hates texas – another one was god hates taxis. bah ha.
I say “God Hates Liars More”.
ISM manufacturing index better than expected, to 53.4 in March.
50 number shows growth.
Good stuff, thanks Jovie.
Today Show is blasting away their GREAT NEWS that Palin will be hosting tomorrow. I just heard a promo which said to tune in to hear how she feels about the president. Wowee! As if no one knew how she feels about the president. I am so disgusted by NBC and Today with this in- the- bubble decision—-some kind of destructive competition with GMA for asking Katie Couric to guest host. No regard to all the damage and divisiveness Palin unleashed in this country—–she was the first to lift the rocks and the teabagger haters crawled out—–it’s all about some ratings contest, to hell with good sense and what is good for the country.
I think that we should write them and let them know that we’ll be boycotting them for choosing to put a cartoon character on to co host their morning show.
I agree. I’m going to do just that and tell them how irresponsible they are to have someone as a host who does nothing but bring hatred and incivility to our national discourse.
Just left a seething message on the comment line. Feel better! 🙂
That description does a real disservice to all the good cartoon characters out there. I’d take the Simpsons anyday over the former half-gov. 😉
The Today show is putting a hater on who is a bully victim. We’ve all seen Game Changer. If I hadn’t boycotted them years ago for being so propagandish I would now. I hope that flop in their desperation.
Katie Couric was amazing on ABC! I seriously doubt Mrs. Palin will be the same.
Yes, that’s what we want to hear, what Palin thinks of the President. What is wrong with NBC???????
They’re f**king a$$holes..that’s what’s wrong with them and I hope it comes back to bite their craven zombieheads.
Two weeks from now nobody will remember she was on. And I bet dollars to doughnuts the Today Show ratings for her time on are going to take a nosedive. They can prop up Moosewomen all they want but two failed TV series and a failed bus tour tells me they are wasting their time.
WHO THE FUCK WANTS TO HEAR HOW SHE FEELS ABOUT THE PRESIDENT?!! Thats like asking Jenna Jameson how she feels about a penis. Seriously, NBC?! You’re gonna compete with Katie by using the dragon she slayed? God, Journalism is not only dead, but is rotting into liquid.
Hahahaha. OMG *faints* I am so tweeting your first line. 😆
“Seriously, NBC! You’re gonna compete with Kaite by using the dragon(progagandamonger)she slayed?”
Brilliant! Tweet that!
Considering her low approval numbers, this may actually be a plus.
I want Elizabeth Warren to host one day, then.
Great read
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/2012418126392479.html
Gun laws, culture wars and the struggle for common sense
The NRA’s laws have made the US a more dangerous place, directly contradicting the organisation’s stated goals.
HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/04/02/456446/planned-parenthood-in-wisconsin-bombed/
That’s awful. These people are sick.
Good Morning TOD family. It’s Monday a whole new week of drama to lose your mind over. I am practicing deep breathing.
😆 Never a dull moment Sonjia!
Goldman Sachs has other uses for its money…..none of it good.
thinkprogress For 6 years, Goldman “held a significant stake in a company notorious for ties to sex trafficking” of under-aged girls thkpr.gs/HKXB1k
52 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
Media blackout?
‘Morning y’all. On deck and ready to assume my watch in a bit. But first I thought I’d put this little tidbit out there. I’m sure it’ll piss someone off.
1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.
Kurt Vonnegut,
Chips
Also on Wednesday, the President will sign the STOCK Act, which makes clear that Members of Congress are subject to the same insider trading laws that apply to everyone else.
Did the thugs actually pass it ? I am shocked.
Watered it down to protect Cantor.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/02/10982302-haley-rubio-would-turn-down-vp-nod
Secret donors to be revealed. Judge orders donations to be disclosed.
Just heard it on Bloomberg!
That is excellent news (even for John McCain) If so, please provide a link.
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-31/campaign-donor-advertising-rule-thrown-out-by-u-s-judge-1-.html
FEC will rule what judge said over the weekend, and viola. How about those liberal judges?
Along those same lines:
Bloomberg channel just reported, GM sold 100k green vehicles in March, and 2k chevy volts.
The Supreme Court has ruled that jailers may subject people arrested for minor offenses to invasive strip searches, siding with security needs over privacy rights.
By a 5-4 vote Monday, the court ruled against a New Jersey man who complained that strip searches in two county jails violated his civil rights
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/02/supreme-court-upholds-strip-searches-at-jails/#ixzz1qtd2JbPH
This law already was in place – they voted to uphold it.
Wow… I did not know that……
4th amendment.
I’m …almost…positive that this was an April Fool’s prank.
http://planetpov.com/2012/04/01/gop-to-pass-voting-rights-act-for-corporations/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+planetpov%2Fmfkm+%28PlanetPOV%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
So I guess the SP hosting crap is not an April Fools joke and it’s real. TOD we are getting poll after poll that shows that PBO is beating Romney with women by astronomical numbers. The Repubs need an image change and NBC needs a ratings boost so they go and get the woman who claims to HATE the lamestream media with a vengeance to co-host their show. SP will get 24-48 hours of “glowing” media coverage for her guest host spot. NBC will see a big ratings boom tomorrow because even though we Dems loath SP for some unknown reason they will tune in to listen to her word salad garbage in record numbers while she makes headlines by saying something really outrageous about PBO. Thereby, trying to bait the O’Campaign to come out and respond to this “woman” who was just using “free speech”.
The media consensus (made up of mostly men) will declare that she is just a misunderstood “woman” who has fabulous camera presence and you can count on Mika and other Republican woman to echo this sentiment for the rest of the week on cable.
I see this one as clear as can be so just sit back and watch it unfold as the freak show aka/the media attempts (unsuccessfully) to try and manipulate the public with an attempt to soften the Republican Party’s image of women and cast aspersions on Dems for being too harsh on this poor Repub woman who has every right to spew her venom an a mainstream (Not Fox) morning news show.
They must think that we are unbelievably stoopid!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙄
They don’t think we are Stoopid, but they do think the Inbreeds are dumb as Rocks!
donna you are spot on in your ability to see right thru the BS media’s antics. I notice they’re also trying to push Ann Romney as some “rock star” seemingly oblivious to the failure that was when they tried to do the same with Palin in 2008.
Women voters don’t care about “rock star” if the substance of their rights to health, contraception, equality in the workplace and elsewhere is not being addressed. The males who control the media think with their sex organs and think that women are just another “interest” group who will vote simply because they see another female representing the GOP.. These men are WRONG.
This Democrat ain’t watching that crap…. I’d rather watch the recycle trucks work up and down the street, far more productive to a better future.
🙂 🙂 🙂 And I will never look at a recycle truck the same way again! Thanks for that analogy!
Seattle leads the nation in green practices: our recycling is free, we also have weekly food scraps and yard waste pick up which goes directly to the composting station, and only costs a pittance, and our new light rail construction is moving forward rapidly! (Pun!) we are one of two cities I believe, where the Nissan Leaf is being tested, so seeing a lot of those on the road, I really like the look of them, now where to get the 40K to buy me one!
Love it! I try to do my part by not bringing home too much that needs recycling.
I really don’t see Pailin getting glowing anything. The woman’s venom is a turn off to women.
Tyler Perry posted on his Facebook Sunday his recent experience Driving While Black (DWB)
https://www.facebook.com/thetylerperry
RACIAL PROFILING SHOULD BE A HATE CRIME INVESTIGATED BY THE FBI!!!
That way local government can’t make the decision on whether or not these people get punished.
So, NBC is now tacking Far right, with the temporary addition of SP?
What’s next?
A fill in for Rachel Maddow?
Don’t laugh, the Liberal media will cease to exist in 20 years. The equivalent of State run media, except it’s Corporate run media!
Solyndra probe finds no wrong doing-
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_20270658/solyndra-probe-its-actions-finds-no-wrongdoing
Not good.
Where did everybody go? I was talking to a few people and then everybody vanished.
Like one of those creepy movies!
We are here, Jovie, it is who who have vanished! 😉 😉 😉
LOL Jovie. I am still here. So will the fraudster issa and his thugs apologize to the prez on the solyndra “scandal” ?
All Issa cares about is his 450 million in the Bank.
CNN just showed a clip of Oprah’s saying, “I am 100% behind our President,” and, as her face softened, she continued, “I actually love our President … ” and went on to say how much respect she has for him. Nice.
Well Oprah, we love our President too. And let me add, we love our First Lady also. A wonderful pair.
three great phrases for our arsenal:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/02/1079813/-3-Things-Democrats-Should-Immediately-Go-On-The-Offense-About
Thanks for the link, 57. I particularly liked the frame: “GUT and spend”!
Me, too! This writer does a lot of good progressive framing.
Interesting post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/could-obama-launch-aggressive-campaign-against-supreme-court/2012/04/02/gIQA0NY4qS_blog.html
Tweet of the day and no, this is not from the Onion:
Are you……. serious? 😯
this is for real, Ann Romney actually said that.
I think I’m going to be ill.
Maybe Romney will be the next Viagra spokesperson if that whole running for president idea doesn’t work out.
Seriously, can you imagine if Michelle Obama said that? They’d be calling her classless and crude. But Ann Romney? It’s cute! I feel a headache coming on……
well, I doubt that too many people will think it’s cute, cleary an embarassing gaffe. Supposedly this is part of a roll-out to have Ann make Mitt seem more human. (I guess we can all have compassion for erectile disfunction.)
He is “not too stiff” is a compliment to him how ?
How is your headache now ? 🙂
It’s not good amk. The thought of Willard, you know ….. no, can’t talk about it.
Eeeekkk!
What do you want her to say, “he’s only stiff when he needs to be”? Can’t wait until the comdians get a word of this…hahahahahaha.
You guys ALL have naughty minds – probably the naughtiness from the mats rubbing off; chicken & egg phenomenon, you know. I simply got the message that the awkward Willard we see was not ‘real’ and they would release the real Willard.
At least, I did until you all planted another interpretation. Geesh! **eyes lowered**
Ann Romney is a dunce for bringing a “zipper” anywhere near her husband’s “stiff” problem. Being stiff is the least of that pathological liar’s failings.
See, this is not a bad thing, to have Ann be known as Mitt’s “secret weapon”. Let the MSM overpraise her; when the reality sinks in, all that will be left is disapointment and confusion.
They are a perfect couple, Mr. and Mrs. Gaffe.
LOL!!
So now Ann does stand-up?
https://twitter.com/#!/___Chips___/status/186861983725912064
Folks, we know the man was stiff at least five times. His wife does not even remember how stiff he was and he’s still stiff. Unzipping him will not help he is too stiff to come out of his shell.
Unzip him from WhERE??!! LMAO! This is bad and wicked in so many ways. And dare I say…there in lies the problem! Oooh we democrats are sooo scared of Miss Ann. NOT! 🙂
https://twitter.com/#!/___Chips___/status/186858778682081280
LMAO! Nothing can attract a crowd like Willard 🙂 Send this to UpChuck Todd.
Fired Up take on new meaning! Hee!
What a bunch of sour faces!!
Why the sour pusses? Wow! Such enthusiasm.
funny as hell
I’ve just been followed on Twitter by a Cat and Dog supplies company. But I shouldn’t boast. 😕
Cat and Dog supplies company for Obama!
I was followed by pr0n stars. Ha.
What was it that attracted them to you amk – reveal all, now!
The fact that I’m not mehmney ? 🙂
Ah, o………kay 😆
Prawn stars?
Hey Chips. given the GOPolitico’s insane article touting Ann Romney as rock star…I think we’re due for a new Politico “front page”. Isn’t it interesting how this Politico fake story comes on the heels of the polls showing a huge gender gap and our own FLOTUS looking every bit the rock star at the Kids’ Choice Awards?!
Oh, you’re spot on Pamela, the timing is most curious.
A new GOPolitico front page? I’ll get to work 😉
Let’s see Ann Romney sit down with poor, middle class people, let’s see her sit down with black, white, latinos, people of all race, and income, and see if she makes them feel welcome or that they are with a friend. GOPolitico is just trying to compare Ann Romney to Michelle Obama. NO CONTEST. First Lady Obama can sit down with Queens and Kings, and feel at home, then she can sit down with everyday middle class folks, poor homeless folks, and she would feel at home with them too. Tell me Ann Romney can go spend time with a black or latino poor person, and feel at home. I want to see it. We all know GOPolitico is full of alot of Bull sh*t.
Republican Bull Sh*t.
http://theobamadiary.com/2012/04/02/heads-up-joint-press-conference-with-pm-harper-president-calderon/
Good Day all my O peeps!!!! Another great getting up day in the TOD universe!!! There was a Wisc poll that said repub men and women rated their issues as: men – deficit, spending, contraception and women – healthcare, economy, contraception. The announcer tried to make this as repubsdon’t really feel that this whole contraceptive thing is just not that big a deal for repubs of either sex. I’m thinking, ‘you numbnut, most women feel that contraceptive/birth control IS healthcare! Why else would repub women make healthcare their #1 issue and do we really think it’s their #1 issue because they don’t like ACA? I’ll say this once again, no matter how repub women vote in the primary, they are voting PBO in the general.
Test
LMFAO i cant believe miss Ann just tell the world her husband is unstiff