It’s A Love Thing

Behind the Scenes with President Obama & Team USA Basketball

This and That

McClatchy

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Austin Music Hall, Texas

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Cagle

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Nick Anderson

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Morning/afternoon/evening all 😉

Heads up: President Obama in Austin

Now: President Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at Austin Music Hall, Austin, Texas

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The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

Heads up: President Obama in San Antonio

2:0: President Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at The Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio

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CBS live streaming

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Coming up

12:30: The President arrives in San Antonio, Texas

2:0: Delivers remarks at a campaign event at The Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio (Live coverage)

3:30: Delivers remarks at a campaign event (Private Residence)

4:50: Departs San Antonio

5:25: Arrives Austin, Texas

6:50: Delivers remarks at a campaign event at Austin Music Hall, Austin, Texas (Live coverage)

8:55: Delivers remarks at a campaign event (Private Residence)

10:10: Departs Austin

1:05 AM: Arrives Joint Base Andrews

1:20 AM: Arrives the White House

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Steve Benen: Quite a few Americans are going to go to their mailbox this week and next, open it, and find something unexpected: a check from their insurance company. It’s another side benefit from the Affordable Care Act that most Americans mistakenly thinks they don’t like:

When Laird Le found a check for $70.02 in the mail, he wasn’t quite sure why. Turns out, he’s one of the estimated 13 million Americans that will receive a rebate on their health insurance premiums as a result of the health care reform law recently upheld by the Supreme Court…..

…. “Obamacare” has an 80/20 rule, which requires insurance companies to spend roughly 80% of all premiums on actual health benefits, rather than company overhead (marketing, lobbying, executive salaries, etc.). When an insurer spends less than 80% on health care for its customers, the company is required to send the customer a check for the difference.

How many checks are we talking about? According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly 16 million Americans will get rebates before the legal due date, which is Aug. 1…. when they realize it’s because of Obamacare, maybe the law will start to look a little better in those consumers’ eyes….

Full post here

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TPM: President Obama over the past week has hammered away at Mitt Romney’s business record. It’s like he’s “hellbent on making the word ‘Bain’ synonymous with a source of harm or ruin,” Stephen Colbert said on Monday. Over the weekend, the Obama campaign released a blistering new ad, mocking Romney’s rendition of “America the Beautiful” with a series of scathing headlines. “Mitt was originally on key,” Colbert said. “But he outsourced many of those notes to India.”

….. Romney adviser Ed Gillespie tried to clear the whole thing up on Sunday, saying Romney retired from Bain capital “retroactively.” What a novel idea, Colbert thought. “So he wasn’t responsible for firing all of those people whose jobs were outsourced. He was responsible for retroactively not hiring them.”

Video at link

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Cincinnati, July 16 (Photos by Christopher Dilts for Obama for America)

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Morning/afternoon/evening everyone 😉

Rise and Shine

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Dana Milbank: Mitt Romney is an impressive man, but until now, we didn’t know just how impressive. According to his senior adviser, Ed Gillespie, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is a time traveler.

Gillespie made this surprise disclosure to CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday as he attempted to explain why the candidate claimed to have stepped down as chief executive of Bain Capital in 1999 but the company’s filings show him in that position through 2002.

“He took a leave of absence,” Gillespie said, “and, in fact, Candy, he ended up not going back at all, and retired retroactively to February of 1999 as a result.”

…..A better strategy would be for Romney to get back in the time machine and eliminate the phrase “retired retroactively” from the record. While in the past, he might also pause long enough to take his dog Seamus off the car roof.

Full article here

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Eugene Robinson: Mitt Romney has every right to cloak his personal and professional finances in secrecy — and voters have every right to assume he has something embarrassing to hide. If this seems unfair, Romney has only himself to blame.

…. The only reason anyone cares when Romney left Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded and ran, is because Romney made a totally unreasonable claim: When Democrats pointed to outsourcing and job cuts at companies Bain owned or controlled, Romney denied any responsibility since these unfortunate developments took place after he left to run the Winter Olympics in 1999.

This was an absurd position to take. Romney has boasted of his prowess at creating jobs by pointing to successful companies in which Bain invested, such as Staples, the office-supply chain that went on to expand and hire tens of thousands of employees. But much of this growth took place after 1999. Romney was trying to take credit for post-departure successes but not for failures.

…. Going out of your way to invite this kind of speculation, as Romney is doing, seems an awfully unpromising campaign strategy.

Full article here

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Cagle

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9:0: President Obama departs the White House

12:30: Arrives in San Antonio, Texas

2:00: Delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center

3:30: Delivers remarks at a campaign event

4:50: Departs San Antonio

5:25: Arrives in Austin, Texas

6:50: Delivers remarks at a campaign event at Austin Music Hall

8:55: Delivers remarks at a campaign event

10:10: Departs Austin, Texas en route Joint Base Andrews

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Morning everyone 😉